Lithuanian stabbing tragedy in Ireland

DUBLIN - A Lithuanian national working in Ireland has been charged with the murder of a fellow countryman at his workplace.

Algimantis Skankevicius, 46, is alleged to have fatally stabbed a work colleague, 35-year-old Arunas Betrovaskas, on Feb. 22 at the Coothill Cooperative Poultry Products Ltd. processing plant in County Monaghan, where both were employed.

While there is believed to have been an altercation over a woman, initial reports here conflict. According to some reports, Betrovaskas had a wife and two children at home in Lithuania, while others have it that his wife was also employed at the plant.

It is thought that a quarrel started during the evening of Feb. 22 in the canteen area where the two worked as cleaners. It continued outside, deteriorating rapidly as they prepared to cycle home. Both men sustained stab wounds.

Police from nearby Bailieboro were called at around 8:30 p.m., and the pair were removed to Cavan General Hospital, where Betrovaskas died four hours later. Assistant state pathologist Dr. Marie Cassidy conducted a post mortem shortly after.

"I didn't kill that man," was what Skankevicius told Superintendent Tom Brady, who interviewed and then arrested him. His injuries were described as serious, but not life-threatening.

Skankevicius was later brought before Judge Flan Brennan at the District Court in County Cavan.

Judge Brennan ordered that an interpreter be made available to the defense, and Skankevicius was remanded in custody to Roscommon Castlerea Prison to appear in court again on Feb. 27.

Two fellow nationals living nearby, friends of the deceased, were too distressed to comment. "It's too difficult now, maybe later," they said.

Coothill, which has a population of 2,000, is host to about 50 Lithuanians and a number of Latvians and Russians, of whom the indigenous population speak well.

One local shopkeeper remarked, "I've been here about two years, and they are here about that long. They all work hard and some of them are highly qualified. They never hang around the streets, and I've never known them to cause a moment's trouble."