A distraught family have demanded to know how an Irishman who killed their son in a brutal attack was allowed into Australia.
Thug Patrick Farrell is now on the run and wanted by New South Wales police, who suspect him of slicing a man’s ear off in a vicious knife attack.
The 29-year-old served three years in jail here for manslaughter over the death of Leitrim student Andrew Dolan, 20, in 2011.
He is now wanted for the alleged stabbing of Oliver Solan in Sydney last month – and police say he also allegedly knocked out a 56-year-old man in a one-punch attack last November.
Mr Dolan’s father Joe told the Daily Telegraph in Australia: “We are shocked and appalled, these allegations are very serious.
"We wonder how he got to Australia in the first place and hope that justice will be delivered appropriately.”
During Farrell’s trial, the court heard Andrew, a young biomedical student, pleaded for his life before the accused delivered the fatal blow.
“Don’t hit me,” Andrew begged on December 23, 2011. “What did I do?”
He died in hospital 10 days later. Co Kildare man Farrell, then 21, pleaded guilty to the unlawful killing.
In a campaign to end one-punch violence, Andrew’s heartbroken mother Rosie said that if bystanders had intervened her son may still be alive.
According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs website, all visa applicants have criminal record checks.
It also says that anyone who has had a jail sentence of more than one year is banned from entering the country.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s office stated: “The Australian Government takes seriously its responsibility to protect the Australian public from the risk of harm posed by non-citizens who engage in criminal conduct or behaviour.
“Non-citizens who do not comply with their visa conditions, who provide incorrect information in order to enter Australia... or who engage in substantial criminal conduct will have their visas cancelled.”
On August 29, Farrell allegedly left Mr Solan in a pool of his own blood in the corridor of a Randwick apartment in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
The 30-year-old was left with a severed ear and also a punctured spleen which later had to be removed.
Two other people who were allegedly involved in Mr Solan’s brutal attack have been charged.
Farrell also allegedly knocked a 56-year-old man unconscious in a beer garden in Matraville, also in Sydney’s east, in November last year.
The man was in hospital for two days.
