A Dubliner who claimed he killed an American nurse in an accident during consensual sex told a Hungarian court he “didn’t want to take her life”. The 38-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously admitted killing Mackenzie Michalski (31) in November 2024 during a sexual encounter and hiding her body. The Irishman had pleaded not guilty at Budapest’s metropolitan court to murdering Michalski, insisting her death was the result of an accident during consensual sex.He addressed the judge during a court hearing in Budapest on Tuesday in advance of his sentencing on Thursday.The prosecutor has previously argued that based on evidence presented at trial, it was highly unlikely the victim had asked him to strangle her, as he claimed, as she was suffering from an old neck injury and had not previously shown any interest in violent sex.“Everything I did, I did because Kenzie asked me,” the Dubliner told the Budapest court.“I didn’t want to take her life,” the man said. His last words in court were: “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, I’m very sorry.”The judge will deliver his verdict on Thursday.The victim’s mother addressed the court, speaking of the “immense trauma” caused by the loss of Mackenzie, recalling how she had been forced to see her daughter’s unrecognisable face upon arrival in Hungary.“We will never be able to enjoy our only daughter’s birthday ever again,” her mother said.“Since she was a child, Mackenzie dreamed of her wedding day and starting a family with her future husband. But now she’ll never be able to experience this.”The victim’s mother also voiced her disgust that the Dublin man had been allowed to “besmirch” their daughter’s name by claiming she preferred BDSM [bondage, discipline, submission, masochism] sex, while he continued to enjoy anonymity.The “heinous crime” of Michalski’s murder “deserves the harshest penalty allowed by law”, the grieving mother said.The Irishman’s defence team called for the reopening of evidence, arguing that the trial has been biased towards the victim.A Dublin man addressed the judge in a Budapest court on Tuesday during the trial over the killing of American nurse Mackenzie Michalski. Photograph: Bálint Dömötör Dr György Magyar said the sexual encounter had been clearly consensual in his opinion and called claims that the defendant had willingly killed the victim “absurd”.“This was an accident,” he said, claiming there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove the defendant wanted to kill the woman. He argued there had only been speculation about the man’s motives.The defence lawyer compared Michalski’s death to a car crash in which a car accidentally slid on the road and slammed into a tree, killing the passenger.The court previously heard that Michalski, a nurse who came to Hungary as a tourist a few days before meeting the accused, was suffocated after the man strangled her for at least two to three minutes.Dozens of further injuries were found on her body during the autopsy, including signs of blunt-force trauma to the head, the trial heard.Clinical psychiatrists told the court at a hearing in April that the man told them he had kissed Michalski’s dead body. They said he could have been in bed with the victim for up to four hours after her death but he had provided conflicting accounts about the length of time.At Tuesday’s hearing the defence team argued the suspect had simply “panicked” and wasn’t able to think clearly in the aftermath of the victim’s death.The police found disturbing footage of the missing woman’s naked, tied-up and lifeless body on the suspect’s phone. The Irishman’s computer and a “spy pen” seized by the police showed further evidence of the suspect’s perversion, the court was told.At a previous hearing, the Dubliner told the court he had arrived in Hungary less than a week before the incident and met Michalski at Szimpla Kert, a popular bar in Budapest frequented by tourists, on November 4th, 2024. The pair had drinks at the bar and in a nightclub before going to the man’s apartment where Michalski died in the early hours of November 5th.The police report said the Dublin man attempted to cover up his crime by cleaning the rented apartment and buying a suitcase to put his victim’s body in.He then rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton, about 145km southwest of Budapest, where he dumped the body in a wooded area outside the town of Szigliget, hoping wild boars would eat the remains, the court heard. The man was detained in Budapest the following day and led the police to the location where he had hidden the body.