Irishman killed in Germany 'released from Irish prison in April'

The Donegal man killed after he stabbed three people in Germany was released from an Irish prison two months ago.

Enda McLoughlin, aged 27, is alleged to have attacked a taxi driver, a truck driver and another man before being struck by a car on a motorway near Aachen.

McLoughlin - from Carndonagh in Co Donegal - hailed a taxi in Heerlen in the Netherlands and asked to be taken across the border to Aachen in Germany, the Irish Examiner reports.

He stabbed the 50-year-old driver, who is now in a serious condition.

McLoughlin then ran away before demanding money from a German man who was parking his car. The man did not have cash on him, and McLoughlin stabbed him. He then hailed a second taxi and asked to be driven to Cologne.

However, during the journey, the driver got a warning over his radio about a dangerous man. The warning was in German so McLoughlin did not understand it.

The taxi driver pulled into a motorway lay-by and offered McLoughlin the chance for a toilet break — driving off as soon as he left the vehicle.

A Lithuanian truck driver parked in the lay-by was attacked next.

Two of the victims are still in hospital. The truck driver, who was critically ill, is understood to have improved overnight.

McLaughlin again fled the scene, but was hit by a car driven by British tourists while attempting to cross the busy motorway, and died at the scene.

A post mortem is set to be carried out on his body at a hospital in Cologne.

The Irish Daily Mirror's crime correspondent Cathal McMahon said McLoughlin had a number of previous convictions for violent assault.

"Mr McLoughlin would have been very well known to gardaí and would have had a history of violent assault," he said.

"He has more than 23 previous convictions and has appeared regularly in court.

"We know he was identified by German police based on documents that were on him issued by the Irish Prison Service. He was released from Castlerea Prison (Co Roscommon) on April 9 last."

he had previously also spent time in Cork prison, the Irish Examiner reports.