Human rights campaigner: ‘Something wrong with approach to homeless’

A leading human rights campaigner has said there is “something very wrong” with how this country was addressing homelessness following the gruesome death of a Polish man.

The body of Henryk Piotrowski, 43, was found after a bin lorry emptied its contents at a recycling plant in Dublin last Friday.

The father of two ended up in a commercial wheelie bin sometime during the previous night. The homeless man suffered broken legs and crush injuries caused by the compression inside the lorry and suffocated.

However, an autopsy revealed he had also suffered injuries to his face and head consistent with an assault. Gardaí are investigating if he was assaulted beforehand and was either dumped in a wheelie bin by his attackers or was disorientated and fell or climbed into one.

Alice Leahy, director of homeless charity Trust and a former member of the Irish Human Rights Commission before its abolition, said she knew the deceased. “He came to us around two years ago. He came, like so many others, in an awful state, maybe having slept out.

“I was the last person to see Henryk in Trust. A man who works with me called me to ask would I look at his feet. Now, they were in a dreadful state. I had his feet soak in a basin of lukewarm water and suds. They were like as if you stood in black plums and they squashed into your feet and you left the skin there.”

She said that after washing his feet, he was “very grateful” and added: “He went off and had another cup of tea. He had a shower, he had his feet dressed, he got a new outfit of clothes and he went on his way and said thanks. He was always very grateful. We don’t expect gratitude, for something as simple and as basic as that.”

Ms Leahy told RTÉ radio: “It’s the most horrific death for anyone: Death in a skip. What must have been going through that man’s head, even listening to those trucks going around, and also the staff that found him and left thinking there was a human being in there.”

She said the death highlighted a wider issue for society: “There’s something very wrong about how we are addressing homelessness. Homelessness isn’t just about housing. Millions have been spent, experts said it would all be solved by 2010, another lot of experts and another new minister said it would be solved, I think, two years down the road.

“There will always be people who will need care, attention, understanding.

“That’s what life is about and really the way services are planned now, they’re not taking into account the problems of the human condition and that not everyone is able to cope with the bureaucracy and the red tape that’s out there.”