Sebastian Barczuk found guilty of murdering flatmate

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A Central Criminal Court jury found Sebastian Barczuk guilty of murdering his former flatmate, Michal Kurek. The proceedings were reported on 8 October 2020.

Barczuk had pleaded not guilty to murdering Kurek at a place unknown within the State between 3 and 4 August 2017.

Kurek was found in Ballyboughal on the morning of 4 August with 62 stab wounds, including 25 knife wounds to his back. Former deputy state pathologist Dr Michael Curtis testified that he died from multiple stab wounds, with blunt-force trauma to the head and chest as a contributory factor.

The defence contended that the State could not say when, where, why or how Kurek was killed and could not identify a motive. The jury rejected the defence and returned an 11-1 majority verdict after nearly 13 hours of deliberations over four days.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt remanded Barczuk in custody until 2 November, when he was due to hand down the mandatory life sentence.