Polish couple found guilty of murdering child in UK

A Polish mother and her boyfriend have been found guilty of murdering the woman's 4-year-old boy in Coventry, central England, in a case that has shocked the UK.



 

Magdalena Luczak, 27, and Mariusz Krezolek, 34 (a wanted criminal in Poland), will be sentenced by Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.

The court heard how the couple had progressively starved 4-year-old Daniel Pelka, subjecting him to mental and physical abuse.

The boy died in March 2012, following a severe blow to the head from Krezolek, after which the child was left in a tiny room without light for over 24 hours.

“It was a callous and wretched murder,” said Detective Inspector Chris Hanson outside court yesterday, after the two had been sentenced, as cited by The Daily Telegraph.

“They showed him no compassion, no care and not an ounce of kindness. After a savage beating they left him, starving, locked in a room in the dark to die on his own.”

The couple claimed over several months that the 4-year-old had an eating disorder, insisting that the child should not be fed at school in Coventry. The pair gave him one meal a day, but regularly beat him and forced him to eat salt.

Detective Hanson said there was “no evidence” of an eating disorder. Starvation led to the child weighing just over a stone and a half at the time of his death, and coroners found numerous injuries.

It has emerged this week that Krezolek had been a wanted criminal in Poland, and it is likewise understood that he was evicted from the army for attacking a fellow recruit.

Meanwhile, besides a police investigation, a review is being carried out by the Coventry Safeguarding Children Board, as to how the boy's deterioration was allowed to occur under the eyes of the authorities.

(nh)

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