Attacker spent much of his teens behind bars in native land
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POLISH national Leszek Jarosz already had a chequered history with the law before he brutally stabbed radio researcher Mairead O'Dwyer, just two weeks after arriving in Ireland in May of last year.
Jarosz (21) came from Leba in northern Poland, a small town on the Baltic Sea some 110km from Gdansk.
Checks on his background with police in the area and other local sources revealed that his family life was chaotic and that he became involved in crime at an early age. By the time he moved to Dublin, where his sister was already living, he was suspected of involvement in serious criminality.
According to local police, Jarosz first came to their attention at the age of 14 for petty crime.
He was sent to a detention centre in Debrzno, near Szczecin in the west of Poland, where he spent much of the next four years.
Shortly after his release at the age of 18, the police began to suspect him of membership in an organised crime gang involved in drug smuggling.
Within a year, he was in jail in Szczecinek for robbery and assault. He served two years behind bars.
Jarosz was released in November 2006 and returned home to live with his mother, Grazyna.
His older brother, Lukasz, also spent time in prison for other offences. His father, Marian, was described by police as a petty thief who abused alcohol. He died in April last year.
Grazyna Jarosz now lives at home with her eldest child, 25-year-old Justyna.
She told the Irish Independent she was unaware of the full circumstances of the attack on Ms O'Dwyer.
She claimed her son suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and that this may have contributed to his brushes with the law.
"My son was always over-active, I had endless trouble with him," said Mrs Jarosz.
"I don't know exactly what happened in Ireland. When I asked him what happened, he said he didn't remember himself.
"He said he was with his friends. They were drinking to welcome the arrival of a friend from Poland.
"He had a job in Ireland and I thought everything was going to be okay. Now I have two tragedies -- my husband's death and another son in jail."
Mrs Jarosz added: "Now I know there is such a problem as ADHD. Maybe if Leszek had seen a psychologist when he was little, he'd have a different character.
"I knew he had problems, but I wasn't able to pull him away from that environment he'd got into. Leszek didn't have a good role model."
- Shane Phelan
