One of Cork's most gruesome murders: Gardaí make progress two years on

GARDAÍ are preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions as the second anniversary of the gruesome murder of Mikolaj Wilk takes place.

The 35-year-old Polish man was hacked to death by a gang of up to four men armed with machetes, in his rented home at Maglin, Ballincollig, on June 10, 2018. The gang burst into the house at around 3am.

He died in Cork University Hospital a short time after the attack.

His wife, Elzbieta, received serious injuries to her hand and was treated in hospital.

Another woman who was staying in the house managed to flee.

The couple’s two young children who were in the house at the time were also uninjured but were left traumatised. 

The manner of the attack was so vicious that even some experienced gardaí needed counselling afterwards for what they saw. 

Soon after being released from hospital, Elzbieta returned home to Poland with the couple’s children.

Mr Wilk’s remains were also repatriated to Poland for a funeral there.

He had been working in Cork as a gardener.

A Garda spokesman said investigating officers are now putting a file together for the Director of Public Prosecutions who will decide if charges are to be brought against any of the six people arrested last year as part of the probe. All were released without charge.

A BMW car linked to the murder was found burnt out in the Waterfall area just two hours after the attack, 6km from the murder scene.

It was bought in the Cork area in the weeks before the savage attack. Gardaí believe that at least one person was waiting for the gang in Waterfall.

While the main suspects for the horror killing fled to Eastern Europe within hours of the murder, locally-based Eastern Europeans are believed to have aided them in logistics including transport.

Nine vehicles were seized by gardaí shortly after the killing in a swoop on six homes and one business premises in the Ballincollig and greater Cork area. An inquest into his death has been adjourned to allow the criminal investigation to continue.

When it was opened in November 2018, the Cork City Coroner’s Court was told that he had died from haemorrhage and shock as a result of multiple blows with a sharp weapon, associated with a traumatic brain injury.