Man who killed Henry Acorda gets six years

Juraj Hossu pleaded guilty before the verdict.

Juraj Hossu got six years in prison for killing expat Henry Acorda. (Source: Sme - Marko Erd)

Juraj Hossu, the man who killed Filipino expat Henry Acorda in central Bratislava last summer, received a six-year prison sentence.

The Bratislava I District Court issued the unconditional prison sentence for Hossu, who was prosecuted in custody, after the defendant pleaded guilty.

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"I am guilty," Hossu told the court as quoted by the TASR newswire. Following his plead, the court proceeded with the decision about the verdict, without further hearings of witnesses or experts.

Regret

Juraj Hossu, a man in his late twenties from the southern-Slovak district of Dunajská Streda, attacked Henry Acorda, a Filipino expat living and working in Bratislava. Hossu killed Acorda after the latter tried to prevent him from harassing two women on Obchodná Street in Bratislava in the early morning of May 26, 2018. Acorda succumbed to the injuries sustained in the attack.

Although originally there was also suspicion that the attack was racially motivated, the investigation did not prove it and Hossu was charged with homicide.

The murder resulted in a protest whose participants demanded “Justice for Henry”.

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"I regret immensely what happened," Hossu said in his final address to the court at the May 14, 2019 hearing as quoted by the TASR newswire. "I acted unwittingly, I apologise to his family, mainly his mother whom I would help financially even if the court did not order me to do so. I also apologise to my own family."

Alcohol and prescription drugs

The court started hearings in January this year.

“I thought he was harming the girls he was with,” Hossu told the court then, as quoted by Sme. “I cannot really put my mind together, I perceived it in that way and attacked Henry.”

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Hossu estimated that he had drunk about 20 beers and 10 shots of vodka. Moreover, he was seeing a psychiatrist at the time because of stress at work and she had prescribed him tranquilisers. He took them in the morning and as he was attending a business party that day, he also took two other pills before the event, Sme wrote.

Disputes about safety in Bratislava

The killing of Henry Acorda resparked debates about Bratislava's nightlife, no-go zones in the city, and the safety of people, especially foreigners, in the streets. It became a topic of the municipal election campaign that was already running last year (elections took place in November 2018).

Read also: Bratislava’s Obchodná Street to get municipal police station Read more

One of the measures is the planned establishing of a station for the municipal police on Obchodná Street, in order to make this part of the city more attractive and safe.

14. May 2019 at 13:32 | Compiled by Spectator staff