Mikolaj Wilk: Gardaí still trying to 'piece together' Ballincollig murder investigation three years on

A FILE on the gruesome murder of Mikolaj Wilk in Ballincollig three years ago still has not been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A garda spokesman said the investigation into the murder remains active, adding: “Gardai are still trying to piece it together”.

The 35-year-old Polish man was attacked 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.

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

His remains were also repatriated to Poland for a funeral. He had been working in Cork as a gardener.

Six people were questioned about the attack in 2019. Nobody has been charged in connection with the murder.

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

It was bought in the Cork area in the weeks before the savage killing. 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.