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'Shock' over tourist death verdict

Irishman Fergal Barry died after a 2005 attack in Prague center that remains unsolved

By Hilda Hoy
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 30th, 2007 issue

Photo courtesy of the SUNDAY WORLD in Dublin
Kevin Barry, shown May 21 on the eve of the trial, is on his eighth trip to the city to seek justice for his son.
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The family of an Irish man who died after a violent beating in Prague in 2005 is in shock over a judge’s decision to acquit his accused killer of murder.
Fergal Barry, 35, was on a trip to Prague Dec. 9, 2005, when he decided to head out with a friend for a night on the town. By early the next morning, he was beaten and bleeding on the sidewalk, suffering from mortal head injuries. He died after several days in hospital.
Photo courtesy of the SUNDAY WORLD in Dublin
Fergal, 35, was an avid music lover, and played in a local band in Carlow, Ireland.
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On May 22, his family was in a New Town courthouse hoping for justice. Instead, they found themselves in “disbelief and total shock” when the judge convicted the accused on a lesser charge of bodily harm.
“I didn’t believe what I was hearing through the interpreter,” said Fergal’s father, Kevin Barry, speaking by phone from the family’s hometown of Carlow, Ireland.
He traveled to Prague for the trial along with Fergal’s brother and cousin. This was his eighth trip to Prague since 2005, the first time to rush to his son’s hospital bedside. He was there when Fergal died.
“We didn’t know exactly what to expect, [but] we thought it was a clear case. … We just cannot understand,” he said of the trial. “We’re totally devastated by the judge’s decision.”
There wasn’t enough evidence to convict the accused, David Skopal, of the original charge of bodily harm causing death, Judge Jaroslava Lišková ruled. Instead, Skopal was convicted of just bodily harm, or assault, and given a two-year suspended sentence and five years’ probation, Lišková said in a telephone interview.
From the date of the verbal verdict, Lišková now has 20 days to issue an official written verdict. Once that step is completed, the Barry family’s lawyer, Prague-based attorney Josef Oplt, can file an appeal.
“The judgment is not final and conclusive,” Lišková said.
Oplt could not be reached for comment.
Open case
Details about the night Fergal was beaten are fuzzy. The family is hesitant to disclose information about the case for fear it could jeopardize future appeals or civil action against Skopal, Barry said.
Not many details were revealed in court either, said Cathal O’Shea, one of a smattering of Irish journalists who attended the trial.
“I’m told [Barry] was in a pub called the Flash Bar, and the defendant was a barman there,” said O’Shea, a reporter with the Sunday World in Dublin.
Prague business directories contain no listings for an establishment of that name, and a search through central Prague on foot turned up no Flash Bar, he said.
“The mystery is we don’t know how he was assaulted, how he ended up in the street and who put him in a taxi [to the hospital],” O’Shea said.
Fergal’s father is adamant his son wouldn’t have picked a fight with Skopal, and that the altercation was a one-sided attack.
“We’re led to believe he was pick-pocketed in the club, he had no money to pay for his drinks and he was attacked,” Kevin Barry said.
“He was a wonderful person. There was certainly no fight between [him and Skopal]. That’s been proven without a shred of a doubt.”
Police spokeswoman Eva Miklíková refused to provide details on the case or the police investigation. It’s the force’s policy not to comment on cases while they are still in the courts, she said.
Though representatives from the Irish Embassy in Prague attended the trial, embassy officials refused to comment on the judge’s decision.
“Our role is to assist the family,” said embassy Second Secretary Ian Devine.
The Irish media have described Fergal Barry as a popular, friendly and outgoing man who worked for Irish Railways and played in a local band in his hometown of Carlow, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Dublin.
That’s the man his family will hold in their hearts as they continue their painful quest for justice, Kevin Barry said.
“This has destroyed our family,” he said.
— Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Hilda Hoy can be reached at hhoy@praguepost.com


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