Ned Kelly
23-01-2008, 08:18
23 January 2008
Coughlan murder - Why was this criminal in Ireland?
ON MONDAY David Brozovsky, a 19 year-old Czech, was sentenced to life in jail for the rape and murder of mother-of-two Sharon Coughlan in Longford last September.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie said he “could not think of two more gruesome crimes”, describing the killing as a “mindless, senseless, savage attack”.
He continued: “It beggars my understanding of human nature that an individual could do these things to another.”
Brozovsky, who pleaded guilty, told gardaí that he had been alone taking drugs in a house he had previously rented and had seen Ms Coughlan, who was 37, pass by on her way to a local supermarket.
He waited for her to pass on her return journey and dragged her into the house, raped and murdered her.
He told gardaí he stole Ms Coughlan's mobile phone, $€100 and two packets of cigarettes, and that after the attack he went home, had a shower and fell asleep.
Brozovsky has an extensive criminal record, especially for one so young. He has 25 convictions in his home country, ranging from theft and extortion to battery. The terrible crimes he committed in Longford were not the first he committed outside his native country. He has convictions in Belgium for theft and aggravated theft.
Indeed, it is difficult to understand why someone so young and with such a criminal record should be at liberty to travel anywhere at all.
All in all, and using all of the objectivity and humanity any sane and fair person might care to muster, it would be accurate to describe this murderer, rapist, extortionist and thief as exactly the kind of low life who should be on any sensible country’s exclusion blacklist.
So, what was he doing in Ireland?
Why was he shown the red carpet as if we had any moral obligation to welcome a 19 year-old with more than 20 criminal convictions into our society just because he’s a citizen of a fellow EU state?
These are entirely valid questions and should not be deflected by accusations — inferred, indirect or direct — of racism, xenophobia or, that favourite of mild-mannered multiculturalists, knee-jerk.
They are none of those things and no way reflect on his many and welcome compatriots living and working successfully in Ireland.
Britain has recognised this dilemma and has just put measures in place to force airlines or ferry operators to supply details of all passengers travelling from this country to Britain. The move is part of a tightening of border controls in Britain and Northern Ireland for policing, customs and immigration reasons.
Any person with Brozovsky’s record would not even get through US immigration checks at Shannon if he was trying to fly to America so how come he has been living here since July, 2006?
Are there no checks to at least identify who is coming into this country? Is there no sharing of information between European police forces to alert each other at the very least to the potential for difficulty ahead?
Open borders are a wonderful idea but that does not mean we have to be stupid and turn a blind eye to those whose record suggests that they have a capacity for criminality. Are we now vulnerable to not only our home-grown killers and rapists but those from all over Europe? If that is the case things need to change and change quickly and radically.
Last week we spoke of a person’s entitlement to try to recover their life once they had served any sentence handed down by the courts. All of that is still true but that does not mean you pretend that there is nothing to be concerned about and that you forget what a person has done in the past.
If Brozovsky had been barred from entering Ireland, like anyone with his record should have been, Sharon Coughlan would still be alive. Are we really going to sit and wait for the awful scandal to be repeated?
Being good Europeans does not mean we have to open our homes to criminals from any of the other 26 member states who might decide to come here.
Coughlan murder - Why was this criminal in Ireland?
ON MONDAY David Brozovsky, a 19 year-old Czech, was sentenced to life in jail for the rape and murder of mother-of-two Sharon Coughlan in Longford last September.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie said he “could not think of two more gruesome crimes”, describing the killing as a “mindless, senseless, savage attack”.
He continued: “It beggars my understanding of human nature that an individual could do these things to another.”
Brozovsky, who pleaded guilty, told gardaí that he had been alone taking drugs in a house he had previously rented and had seen Ms Coughlan, who was 37, pass by on her way to a local supermarket.
He waited for her to pass on her return journey and dragged her into the house, raped and murdered her.
He told gardaí he stole Ms Coughlan's mobile phone, $€100 and two packets of cigarettes, and that after the attack he went home, had a shower and fell asleep.
Brozovsky has an extensive criminal record, especially for one so young. He has 25 convictions in his home country, ranging from theft and extortion to battery. The terrible crimes he committed in Longford were not the first he committed outside his native country. He has convictions in Belgium for theft and aggravated theft.
Indeed, it is difficult to understand why someone so young and with such a criminal record should be at liberty to travel anywhere at all.
All in all, and using all of the objectivity and humanity any sane and fair person might care to muster, it would be accurate to describe this murderer, rapist, extortionist and thief as exactly the kind of low life who should be on any sensible country’s exclusion blacklist.
So, what was he doing in Ireland?
Why was he shown the red carpet as if we had any moral obligation to welcome a 19 year-old with more than 20 criminal convictions into our society just because he’s a citizen of a fellow EU state?
These are entirely valid questions and should not be deflected by accusations — inferred, indirect or direct — of racism, xenophobia or, that favourite of mild-mannered multiculturalists, knee-jerk.
They are none of those things and no way reflect on his many and welcome compatriots living and working successfully in Ireland.
Britain has recognised this dilemma and has just put measures in place to force airlines or ferry operators to supply details of all passengers travelling from this country to Britain. The move is part of a tightening of border controls in Britain and Northern Ireland for policing, customs and immigration reasons.
Any person with Brozovsky’s record would not even get through US immigration checks at Shannon if he was trying to fly to America so how come he has been living here since July, 2006?
Are there no checks to at least identify who is coming into this country? Is there no sharing of information between European police forces to alert each other at the very least to the potential for difficulty ahead?
Open borders are a wonderful idea but that does not mean we have to be stupid and turn a blind eye to those whose record suggests that they have a capacity for criminality. Are we now vulnerable to not only our home-grown killers and rapists but those from all over Europe? If that is the case things need to change and change quickly and radically.
Last week we spoke of a person’s entitlement to try to recover their life once they had served any sentence handed down by the courts. All of that is still true but that does not mean you pretend that there is nothing to be concerned about and that you forget what a person has done in the past.
If Brozovsky had been barred from entering Ireland, like anyone with his record should have been, Sharon Coughlan would still be alive. Are we really going to sit and wait for the awful scandal to be repeated?
Being good Europeans does not mean we have to open our homes to criminals from any of the other 26 member states who might decide to come here.