Radu Floricel, the man who was wrongly arrested for the murder of Ashling Murphy has revealed what actually led to him being identified as a suspect.
The 39 year old,Radu Floricel got a lift from a friend to a local Centra in Tullamore before walking home along the canal on the opposite side of the Grand Canal to where the 23-year-old was attacked.
Nevertheless, his presence in the area around the time led to him being chosen as the chief suspect for her killing and being detained in Tullamore garda station for more than 24 hours.
CCTV from the store shown to him when he was being questioned proved he had been there at that time. He also paid using a credit card meaning there is a record of his purchases.
Mr Floricel, who has been living in Ireland since he moved from Romania at the age of 16 to be reunited with his parents, said he wants his name to be completely cleared.
He has a number of previous convictions for public order offences and believes an existing assault charge arising from an incident last year at his home will be dropped.
“We are a proud Romanian family. We don’t think that should be seen as degrading or anything like that,” he said.
“My mother is a voice trainer for singing and speech therapy. She has had students from all different families in town. A lot of families and people know us.”
The 39-year-old extended his sympathy to the grieving family of Ms Murphy, saying he “can’t even imagine what they are going through”.
“I feel terrible for the misfortune of the young woman and the family. I can’t even imagine what they are going through,” Mr Floricel said.
Later Gardaí released a statement confirming his innocence and booked him into a hotel for the night to protect him from people who wrongly believed he killed Ms Murphy.