Irish citizen pleads not guilty in Hungarian court to murder of his ex-wife

An Irish citizen has pleaded not guilty in a Hungarian court to murdering his ex-wife and setting her apartment on fire to stage her death as an accident.David Anderson (45), who is originally from California but who holds Irish citizenship, appeared at Buda Central District Court of Budapest on Tuesday for the first time since he was charged with the premeditated murder of his ex-wife, Megumi Anderson, a Japanese national, who died in January 2025 aged 43.Anderson was escorted to the courtroom on Tuesday by three Hungarian police officers in balaclavas, with his hands and feet cuffed and wearing a hoodie with a slogan reading, “Just do nothing.”During the pretrial hearing on Tuesday, the Irish citizen denied that he murdered his ex-wife 20 months earlier.READ MOREHe also denied setting her apartment on fire or that he staged the scene as if his ex-wife had fallen asleep with a cigarette in her hand and that the subsequent fire was responsible for her death.Anderson refused a plea deal that would have seen him spend 17 years behind bars and being expelled from Hungary for a further 10 years after the conclusion of his prison sentence.“I believe I have a very strong case,” Anderson told the court at the end of the hearing.He said he wanted to represent himself during the trial, even though, under Hungarian law, every defendant must have a defence lawyer present to be able to provide legal advice.The court heard on Tuesday that Anderson was born in Santa Monica, California. He later became an Irish citizen, qualifying through his mother, who had married an American in Dublin in 1979 before moving to the US.In 2002, Anderson and Megumi were married in Honolulu. The pair moved to Hungary and settled in Budapest in 2013 where they raised their two children, who were aged seven and 11 at the time of Megumi’s death.The court heard that by 2020, the couple’s marriage had deteriorated and they filed for divorce in 2023. Anderson later remarried and moved to the Netherlands, while the children stayed with their mother in Budapest.Prosecutors in Hungary claim that he was motivated to murder his ex-wife because of her desire to move with their children to Japan. Megumi Anderson filed a request to Hungarian authorities in March 2024 to be able to move with the children to Japan, where her parents lived. Anderson opposed this, even though the divorced couple made arrangements to ensure he would be able to stay in touch with his children if his ex-wife’s move to Japan went ahead.The process was still continuing when Anderson arrived in Budapest 10 months later. On the morning of January 29th, 2025, he brought his younger child to her swimming lesson, while the older one went to school by himself.A few hours later, upon his return, Anderson alerted firefighters, who found Megumi Anderson’s lifeless body in the apartment engulfed in flames.In the following days, Hungarian police said their initial investigation found no signs of foul play and that it was likely Megumi Anderson died after falling asleep while smoking.A Hungarian women’s rights organisation claimed that Megumi Anderson had been in touch with them for years and had repeatedly accused the Irish-American of physical and psychological abuse, while others highlighted the fact that she never smoked.The police arrested Anderson five days after the incident, following the discovery of CCTV footage allegedly showing him changing clothes and returning to the flat much earlier than he had originally told the authorities.A man wearing a balaclava and a bicycle helmet is seen on the videos entering the building at around 10am and leaving an hour later, with Anderson in his original clothes returning after 1pm.The prosecution argued in court on Tuesday that Anderson decided to kill his ex-wife and stage it as a household accident months before, fearing an unfavourable decision in his bid for the custody of their children.They allege that during the hour he spent at the flat, after returning in disguise, he covered Megumi’s nose and mouth, who suffocated to death. Afterwards, he is accused of laying his ex-wife’s body on the sofa and placing a cigarette in her hand as well as candles and wine bottles around the livingroom before setting the sofa on fire.Anderson’s trial will start in November.