Man who killed son gets life

A FORMER Fife College IT technician who murdered his son in revenge against his former partner has been jailed for life.

Lukasz Czapla, 41, shot, stabbed and smothered two-year-old Julius at his home in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, in November 2020 to get back at Patrycja Szczesniak.

Czapla had admitted killing little Julius but claimed he was of diminished responsibility at the time.

The 41-year-old sent text messages to his former partner – twoyear-old Julius’ mother – warning he would harm the boy.

He said he was going to take his own life and did not want Julius to find his body, as he had found his own father’s at their home in Poland.

He then shot his son repeatedly in the head with an air pistol, stabbed him repeatedly with a skewer and smothered him with a pillow.

An offer to plead guilty to culpable homicide was rejected and Czapla will now serve a life sentence after a jury found him guilty of murder following a ten-day trial.

Judge Lord Beckett told him at the High Court in Edinburgh he will serve at least 23 years of the 30-year life term.

In a statement released through Police Scotland, Patrycja said: “I only wanted the best for you.

“If only I could only turn back time to have you in my arms again my child.

“Despite the breakup with Juliusz’s dad, I wanted him to have contact with our son. I never stopped him seeing Juliusz.

“Juliusz was murdered only for revenge. His dad wanted me to suffer. He succeeded and achieved his goal at the cost of my beloved little boy’s life.”

A SEX offender who molested two girls, 20 years apart, has been jailed.

Scott Galloway, 63, sexually assaulted his first victim when she was just 12 at an address in Dundee.

His second, who he violated two decades later, was 13.

First offender Galloway, of Bank Street, Arbroath, was found guilty after trial of committing a lewd, libidinous and indecent practice towards a girl at an address in Dundee for about a year and a half during the 1970s.

He was also found guilty of using libidinous, lewd and indecent practices and behaviour towards another girl, then aged over 12 and under 16.

One of his victims, who woke in the middle of the night to find Galloway molesting her, recalled how she locked herself in a cupboard to stop him from attacking her again.

His first victim was only 12 when he touched her inappropriately at his flat in Dundee in the mid1970s, the trial heard.

Lukasz Czapla.