Grief over son who will never come home

IN their victim impact statement, 27-year-old Mariusz Szwajkos’s family quoted a poem written by a Polish priest which now resonates with them: “Let us hurry to love people, they leave us too soon”.

Their son and brother, who had a masters degree in mechanical engineering, was planning to move home and was going to start his own business.

They told the court how they now cherish two old cars he restored from scratch.

Since his murder, they have suffered depression, are on medication for post traumatic stress disorder, and still experience many sleepless nights, enormous levels of stress, headaches and an inability to feel any kind of joy.

His father, who visits his grave every day, said he lost “his son and best friend”.

During his two years in Ireland, Mariusz phoned home every day. His sister, Gosia, is now afraid to answer the phone as she was the family member who took that awful phone call on that fateful day.

“I know that despite how difficult it will be, one day I will tell a story of his life to my baby,” she wrote finally. “How smiling, joyful and always willing to help a person he was. And we will always love and remember him.”