From ‘a respectable home on a Cork estate’ to a murder sentence
The answer, uncomfortably for modern-day Ireland perhaps, would appear to lie partly in the combination of Papazian’s homosexuality and Catholicism.
One starting point is his middle name, the surname of Italian priest Father Eugenio Pacelli.
When Papazian was born on March 1, 1956, in Cork, this Father Pacelli was the reigning pontiff, Pope Pius XII.
In those days, few children were named after popes, indicating Papazian’s upbringing was rich in the beliefs of the Church. But as far as the Church was concerned, Papazian was no ordinary Catholic boy — for he was gay.
Papazian would have been deeply aware his sexual leanings meant he was abnormal in the Church’s eyes.
This was how a quiet, sensitive Catholic lad started on a journey of self-loathing and hatred of homosexuality, his own included.
In today’s Ireland, gay rights campaigners have to coax gay men to overcome their own homophobic attitudes.
One campaigner, who knew of Papazian, said: “There are men who know they are gay yet hate themselves and their homosexuality (because of society’s ingrained attitudes towards homosexuality).
“They have homophobic attitudes and in someone like Papazian, this manifested itself in a very extreme way.”
Papazian would, in later life, develop mental illness and attempt to kill himself before going on to becoming a killer targeting gay men.
Papazian, pronounced Papay-zee-an, is an Armenian name. His grandfather was Armenian but his father, now in his 80s, was born in Paris. The reason for this was a mass slaughter and deportation of Armenian Christians between 1915 and 1917 by their Turkish Ottoman rulers. Up to one million Armenians were murdered or deported and a substantial number fled to France.
In the 1970s, Papazian was in his late teens and living in London, training as a psychiatric nurse.
But training as a nurse was not the prime reason Papazian left Cork and went to London.
London was where Papazian, who was openly gay and enjoyed his sexuality, was free to meet other gay men.
Despite his move to London, Papazian led a nomadic lifestyle, never being able to settle. He also worked in the US for a spell.
British police officer Mick Broster, a detective chief inspector, led the inquiry into the murder carried out by Papazian.
Det Broster said: “Papazian originally came to the UK to work as a nurse but went home to look after his mother who was ill.
“(After she died in 2004) he came back to the UK but work does not seem to be at the forefront of what he wants to do. He just went to the gym, watched television, made plans and applied for jobs. He had no solid lifestyle.”
During this last spell in Cork, he lived in rented accommodation in Sunday’s Well Road. He annoyed fellow residents to such an extent one moved out because of his anti-social manner.
Papazian, by then in his mid-40s, had become part of the city’s gay scene but never had long-term relationships or friendships. People who know him say he is argumentative, contrary, self-centred and difficult to get on with.
One member of Cork’s gay community said: “He was only ever on the margins. What stood out were his eyes and he was quite athletic. He was also bright.”
But he had a darker side to him.
“He was a control freak. Once, he met someone and they set off for a new life in London.
“As soon as Papazian was on the boat he changed: he tried to control everything and told his partner that this was the way it was going to be from now on.
“His partner basically ended it there and then and came back to Ireland on the same boat.”
Papazian retains a soft Cork accent that could be called effeminate.
In England, he worked as a nurse and lived in a series of rented places before taking up a room at Hampstead’s Aviva Hotel which charges €20 a night. Previously, he had been living in Archway, north London, near Hampstead Heath.
Although Papazian had planned to carry out his murders on the heath, he also had plans to move outside London, possibly to frustrate any police investigation.
Papazian was arrested for murder last July. In Britain, he had no previous convictions but was known to Cork gardaí as he was cautioned for shoplifting CDs in 1998.
Police established that although Papazian and his victim had sexual relations, the killing was not sexually motivated.
Asked why Papazian did kill, Det Broster said: “The only explanation is the one that he has given: he always wanted to do one. He was going to be a serial killer, without a doubt, had we not got him.”
On the first day of his trial on January 27, Papazian changed his plea to guilty.
His family are at a loss to explain how a lad from a respectable home on a Cork estate should be serving a murder sentence. His four siblings have all led decent, law-abiding lives.
As one family member told the Irish Examiner: “He never showed any signs of violence.
“We cannot understand why he did this: he was the first-born and such a quiet lad.”
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