The photo of Eugenia Bratis begging on O'Connell Bridge which led to her identification

AN AMATEUR photographer who provided gardaí with the last known photo of a Romanian woman before she was found stabbed to death in Dublin's Phoenix Park last August has received just €500 out of the €10,000 reward offered by Crimestoppers.


Julian Gillespie, an amateur photographer and part-time teacher and tour guide, snapped Eugenia Bratis (50), from Timisoara, as she sat begging on O'Connell Bridge three months before she was found dead.


On 11 August, Crimestoppers offered the reward for information which led to a positive
identification of the woman, whose body was found in the Phoenix Park.


Gillespie saw a garda-issued photograph of the dead woman on television and it immediately reminded him of the photo he had taken three months earlier because of two distinctive moles on her face.


"I got €500, it wasn't as much as I expected but I think other people also came forward with information too. I was just experimenting with a new lens when I took the photo of her," he said.


Gillespie checked his photos and then contacted gardaí as he was sure it was the same woman. The officer took his contact details, and said someone would be in touch. Four days later, Gillespie went on holidays to France.


A week into his trip, he received a call from gardaí at Cabra asking him to send them the photographs as soon as possible. "Luckily, I had the memory card with the photos on them and was able to email them. When I got back, I had to make a statement to gardaí about it. I wasn't aware there was a reward offered until I got back."


At that stage, a Romanian living in Ireland recognised Bratis and she was eventually identified following contact with police in Romania. She has two grown-up children in Romania, to whom she had been sending money she earned begging in Ireland. Significant garda re­sources have been deployed to investigate the murder, which is being led by detectives at Blanchardstown. A challenge to solving the case is that Bratis was not identified for 10 days, making it difficult for gardaí to establish suspects and trace their movements.