CRITICISM | 

Dad of Croatian man who died after ‘unprovoked attack’ in Dublin says gardaí ‘didn’t listen’

“What bothers me the most is that (the gardaí) didn’t listen to David who was a witness to what happened. No matter how bad the truth, you go from there.”

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The friend and father of Croatian man, Josip Strok, who died from a brain injury after he was seriously assaulted in Dublin last month, have hit out at gardaí for how they handled the initial investigation.

On Easter Saturday, March 24, Josip Strok and his friend David Druzinec were making their way home on Grange View Road in Clondalkin when they were assaulted in an unprovoked attack by a group.

Mr Druzinec, who will speak on Prime Time this evening, said that before the assault, the attackers yelled that they should “speak English”.

“It started because they started telling us that you disrespect (this) country, that you need to speak English,” he said.

He said the attackers knocked him unconscious by hitting him from behind with a baseball bat.

“After a few minutes, I managed to stand up and wake up. I saw what he doing to Josip (sic). I wanted to go to help to him and got hit four more times and was done (sic).

The last I remember from that moment was seeing the ambulance lights coming. That’s it,” he added.

Josip Strok suffered catastrophic brain injuries in the attack and died from his injuries four days later, on April 3, in Tallaght Hospital. A vigil was held for him at the scene of the attack over the weekend and attended by dozens of people.

Mr Strok was from the Krapina region in northern Croatia and had been living and working in Ireland in recent years.

While Mr Druzinec was left with multiple fractures and facial wounds following the Easter Saturday assault.

Despite his injuries, Mr Druzinec tried to help gardaí with their investigation the day after the attack.

He believes gardaí were initially reluctant to see the assault as a racist attack and instead suspected that it was drugs related.

Nedjeljko, Mr Strok’s father and a former police officer in Croatia, expressed concern over this approach, telling Prime Time: “What bothers me the most is that (the gardaí) didn’t listen to David who was a witness to what happened. No matter how bad the truth, you go from there.”

Gardaí are understood to be now investigating this double assault as a potential hate crime.

The Irish Independent previously reported that the home of the suspected “ringleader” of a gang who beat Mr Strok to death was searched and a mobile phone seized within days of the murder

Mr Druzinec recalled on Prime Time his experience of witnessing previous racist abuse in Dublin.

“I was a lot of times in Dublin, and I always see these things. How many times I saw in the streets, they saying to someone something, especially to some black guys or things like that.

“And these groups of people always attacking them. But this is happening a lot of times.”

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“The last I remember from that moment was seeing the ambulance lights coming. That’s it,” he added.

Josip Strok suffered catastrophic brain injuries in the attack and died from his injuries four days later, on April 3, in Tallaght Hospital. A vigil was held for him at the scene of the attack over the weekend and attended by dozens of people.

Mr Strok was from the Krapina region in northern Croatia and had been living and working in Ireland in recent years.

While Mr Druzinec was left with multiple fractures and facial wounds following the Easter Saturday assault.

Despite his injuries, Mr Druzinec tried to help gardaí with their investigation the day after the attack.