A woman who travelled to Ireland after war broke out in her home country of Ukraine has pleaded guilty to careless driving causing the death of a man.
Kseniia Vasylenko, 43, had been charged with dangerous driving causing the death of Andrii Nesterov, 49, on lands at Cork Airport, Lehanaghmore on 8 October 2023.
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court today prosecuting barrister, Donal O'Sullivan, said that a plea to a lesser charge of careless driving rather than dangerous driving was acceptable to the State.
Judge Helen Boyle remanded Vasylenko in custody to be sentenced on 26 April.
A victim impact statement will be prepared by the family of Mr Nesterov in the interim. Mr Nesterov was also originally from Ukraine.
Defence barrister Peter O’Flynn asked that a governor’s report be prepared in relation to his client from the prison prior to her sentencing hearing.
"She (Vasylenko) has been in custody since the time of the incident and is doing extremely well. She is an enhanced prisoner."
When the case was previously before the district court, defence solicitor Frank Buttimer said that his client had travelled to Ireland with her five-year-old son after war broke out in Ukraine.
He said that Vasylenko’s 62-year-old mother was already in Cork when she joined her in December 2022.
Mr Buttimer said that his client had worked in local authority administration in a city in central Ukraine prior to the war. She is without a criminal record.
Vasylenko previously said that she was willing to obey even the most stringent bail conditions set down by the court.
She told the court she travelled across Poland, Romania and Moldova to reach Ireland and has been in Cork since December 2022.
Mr Nesterov was taken to Cork University Hospital on the morning of 8 October 2023 where he was later pronounced dead. A postmortem was carried out by Dr Margaret Bolster.
Vasylenko was subsequently arrested in relation to the investigation of the death and was questioned at Togher garda station in Cork city.
