A 23-year-old Iraqi refugee has been given two consecutive life sentences after mutilating and murdering two men he lured to their deaths using the gay dating app Grindr in a grisly spate of murders that shocked the entire nation.
Yousef Palani was sentenced to life in prison at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday, October 23rd for the murders of two gay men, Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee, between the 9th and 10th of April 2022 as well as the attempted murder of a third man who lost use of his eye during an altercation with the defendant.
The murders occurred near the town of Sligo in the West of Ireland. One of the victims was beheaded, leading to a two-day manhunt that ended with the dramatic arrest of Palani by armed police.
Palani is a naturalised Irish citizen who came to the country as part of a refugee resettlement programme in 2006. According to the testimony of one survivor, Palani consensually tied up his victims as part of a sex game before torturing them to death.
One of Palani’s victims, 42-year-old Aidan Moffitt was a local activist with Ireland’s ruling Fine Gael party. His mutilated corpse was found at his home on April 11th. Media reports described how the two nieces of another victim, local hospital porter Michael Snee, were left screaming when they discovered his beheaded corpse at his home.
Irish anti-terrorism agencies were also alerted when €350,000 in cash was found at the home of Palani, leading to fears that the murders were part of a wider Islamic terror plot, however, this link was never established.
During his police and court testimonies, Palani consistently referred to his Islamic faith and hatred for homosexuals being his primary motive in carrying out the murders, insisting that he would have continued to kill if he hadn’t been caught.
It is understood that Palani had a “kill list” of 12 gay men. He had also apparently asked his victims if they were “100% Irish” before wielding the blade. He was only stopped when one of his victims managed to call the police after being stabbed in the eye.
Palani was also criticised in court for exaggerating his mental health issues to seek a more lenient sentence, having stated that he had been motivated by “voices” in his head.
The manhunt to find Palani almost descended into farce when Irish police raided the wrong address. Authorities subsequently resorted to having to go door to door to warn potential gay victims using Grindr messaging services. Palani was later identified by a member of the local Islamic community.
This was not the only migrant-related trial to transfix Ireland over the past week. A Slovakian man, Jozef Puška, is currently in the dock for the murder of a 23-year-old school teacher who was attacked while jogging in Dublin.
The cases come as the Republic witnesses an outbreak of public protests over the country’s dysfunctional asylum system.
