‘Nobody can be proud of the life Josef had’

A judge said yesterday that nobody here can be proud of the life Josef Pavelka had in Ireland, despite the man’s self-inflicted problems.

Last month, Judge Patrick Durcan brought Mr Pavelka’s plight to national attention when he described the Czech national sleeping in a public toilet in Ennis as a “scandal”.

Mr Pavelka, aged 52, and a chronic alcoholic, remained homeless. His body was found in a laneway in Ennis, Co Clare, last Saturday night.