{"id":461378,"date":"2026-05-22T07:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461378\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:29:11","slug":"details-emerge-of-journey-to-ireland-of-somali-national-accused-of-killing-ukrainian-teenager-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461378\/","title":{"rendered":"Details emerge of journey to Ireland of Somali national accused of killing Ukrainian teenager \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harrowing details of the journey to Ireland undertaken by a young asylum seeker accused of murdering a Ukrainian teenager in Tusla<\/a> accommodation last year were heard in Dublin District Court<\/a> on Thursday. <\/p>\n

The court is conducting an age inquiry, applied for by Tusla, regarding the Somali national, who is charged with the murder of Vadym Davydenko<\/a> (17) in Donaghmede, Dublin, on October 15th last. <\/p>\n

The agency no longer believes he is a child, despite having deemed him \u201cpresenting as a minor\u201d last August.<\/p>\n

The young person remains on remand in Oberstown Children Detention Campus awaiting trial. <\/p>\n

In court, accompanied by garda\u00ed, he became upset as his barrister, Deirdre Lynch, read from Tusla\u2019s eligibility assessment report. <\/p>\n

He told the age assessor in August 2025 he had left Somalia in 2021 after Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab took his father and \u201ctried to force him to join their army\u201d. <\/p>\n

She read, \u201cThey tortured him, threw large rocks on him\u201d, and referenced visible scars on his face and arm. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter one month he was released from prison and went home … His paternal uncle dressed him as a woman and organised for him to leave Somalia.\u201d They travelled on foot and by car to Libya, getting there in 2022. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were taken to a ransom place and he had to work and clean like a slave. There were many people there who had to work for their release. They got one meal a day. After eight months they were released … They got to sea and got in a boat. The sea was very rough. The boat collapsed. Some people died as they drowned, including his uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Murder accused gave at least three different dates of birth to international authoritiesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He got back to shore and ended up imprisoned again. He was sexually assaulted and beaten so badly by police he was taken to hospital. Staff there \u201ctold him to escape if he could\u201d. He met a group of Somalis who planned to get to Italy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were in the boat two days and two nights. A big boat came and took them all to Italy.\u201d <\/p>\n

He landed in Lampedusa, Sicily, in February 2023; he was registered in Bologna in June 2023 and landed in Dover on a small boat in October 2023. <\/p>\n

It was \u201cthe most extensive record of what he alleges is his passage from Somalia to Ireland\u201d, said Lynch. <\/p>\n

Det Sgt Mark Quill of Coolock Garda station, who is leading the investigation into Davydenko\u2019s death, reiterated his \u201ccategoric\u201d view that the young person was over 18 when he allegedly killed the Ukrainian. <\/p>\n

He agreed this was partially based on a report from Dundee social work department to the UK Home Office that its age inquiry \u201cconcluded that [the young person\u2019s] physical appearance … would suggest he was significantly over 18 years old\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Security guards should not be deployed in Tusla care units because of staffing problems, says judgeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, Kelly Coyle, the social worker who conducted the Dundee assessment, told the court she had thought he looked \u201cyoung, a teenager\u201d, but assessed him as over 18. <\/p>\n

Quill was \u201csurprised\u201d to hear Coyle had given evidence \u201cthat was never said by her\u201d. <\/p>\n

Coyle said she had conducted a \u201cbrief age inquiry\u201d that had taken \u201cabout 30 minutes\u201d, and not a full age assessment. <\/p>\n

Towards the end of the inquiry\u2019s second day it emerged a second, more recent age assessment had been conducted by Tusla which the agency was not putting before the court. <\/p>\n

Judge Conor Fottrell described this as \u201can extraordinary\u201d situation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very serious decision that the court has been asked to make. Serious issues are arising from this. It is one of the most serious decisions this court will make … In order to make that decision, all relevant information must be brought,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harrowing details of the journey to Ireland undertaken by a young asylum seeker accused of murdering a Ukrainian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8411,61,60,43,40771,53],"class_list":["post-461378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin-district-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-somalia","tag-tusla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}