8 years ago
Monday, August 13, 2012
Father 'stabbed his children 29 times before killing wife and three others
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A father stabbed six people including his wife and two young children more than 40 times because he could not face the break-up of his marriage, a court heard today.
Damian Rzeszowski stabbed two-year-old son Kacper a total of 13 times and his daughter, Kinga, five, 16 times, the court heard.
Before the children were attacked at the family home in St Helier, Jersey, Rzeszowski had set upon his father-in-law Marek Garstka, 56, stabbing him a total of nine times with such force that his spinal cord was severed and a knife lodged in his body.
Solicitor General Howard Sharp, for the prosecution said Kacper, who had probably been playing with a toy car at the time, was 'stabbed a on two separate occasions with two different kitchen knives'.
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| Plea: Rzeszowski pleaded guilty to manslaughter through diminished responsibility in April, but the pleas were not accepted by the Crown |
His older sister ended up on the floor of the lounge, not far from her brother.
Mr Sharp added that blood patterns around Mr Garstka's body suggested he had also been attacked on two separate occasions with two different knives.
Kinga's friend, Julia De La Haye, was also stabbed 16 times, suffering seven wounds to her chest and a further nine to her back in the course of two different attacks.
Mr Sharp said Rzeszowski then attacked his wife, Izabela in the two-bedroom flat's lounge or hallway, but she was able to move and run through the flat and out into a courtyard.
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| his daughter Kinga was stabbed 16 times |
She then climbed in through the bathroom window and made a 'desperate attempt' to call the police using her father's mobile phone.
'The number she dialled was 997, which is the Polish emergency services' number,' Mr Sharp said.
Her friend, Marta De La Haye, also tried to exit the flat, and although the prosecution could not say exactly where she was attacked, her DNA was found on the front door.
'You might think she was unable to leave immediately or chose not to,' Mr Sharp told the judge and the jurats.
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| Rzeszowski stabbed Kacper 13 times |
'She staggered out into the street and collapsed in front of some scaffolding outside the flat next door.'
Mrs Rzeszowska also made it out into the street but was chased by her husband and stabbed again in full view of local residents.
Neighbours tried to intervene and Rzeszowski started stabbing himself as he went back inside the flat.
He slumped to the ground with a collapsed lung near where he had attacked his father-in-law.
Mr Sharp described Rzeszowski, who worked as a builder before his arrest, as a 'pressure cooker who lacks a safety valve'.
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| Problems: There had been problems within Mr and Mrs Rzeszowski's marriage, which came to a head in July last year the Royal Court in St Helier heard |
'He has difficulties controlling his emotions and communicating his frustrations and worries,' the Solicitor General said.
'He has a history of violence and has been involved in somewhere between five to 10 fights since he moved to Jersey in 2005.
'We will invite you to conclude that the defendant has violence in his character.'
On the day the killings took place Rzeszowski had drunk 180ml of whisky and Mr Sharp said he had described himself as a 'happy drunk' at times and a 'violent drunk' on others.
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| Damian Rzeszowski |
But Mr Sharp said witnesses who knew the defendant had also described him as a 'hard-working man' and a 'loving father who provided for his family'.
'This is the case of a man who cannot face the prospect of marriage failure and decides that if the family cannot go on as it is, it must not go on at all,' he added.
Rzeszowski pleaded guilty to manslaughter through diminished responsibility in April, but the manslaughter pleas were not accepted by the Crown, which argues the defendant was not suffering an 'abnormality of the mind' when the attacks took place.
The Royal Court in St Helier heard that Rzeszowski’s rampage took place against a backdrop of increasing marital difficulties between himself and his wife.
Solicitor General Howard Sharp, for the prosecution, told the presiding judge Sir Michael Birt and two jurats - similar to magistrates in mainland UK - who are judging the case: 'Until around June 2011 the defendant’s day-to-day behaviour was unremarkable, but things changed in June and July.
'What was the cause of that change? The answer is to be found in the state of the defendant’s marriage.
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