Boy of 15 ‘ killed migrant with a Superman blow’

A BOY of 15 killed a Polish man with a ‘Superman punch’ after his friends had laughed about the man’s English, a court heard yesterday.

The teenager hit Arkadiusz Jozwik from behind in an act of ‘immature bravado’, the jury was told.

Mr Jozwik, 40, who had been sitting eating a takeaway pizza in a shopping precinct, fell and hit his head on the ground, suffering skull fractures and a ‘catastrophic brain injury’.

He and two friends had been drinking vodka and Mr Jozwik was twice the drink-drive limit when he was hit, although the jury heard he was not being aggressive.

Prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC said: ‘The prosecution does not say that [the boy] thought for a moment that what he did would result in the death of a man.

‘However, we say he moved deliberately to the back of Mr Jozwik to take him by surprise and to hit him from behind.

‘[The boy] jumped up from the ground using the whole force of his body to hit Mr Jozwik to his head. From what appears to be a “Superman punch”… that he threw, he must have intended to send the man to the ground.’

Chelmsford Crown Court heard that Mr Jozwik and his friends were sitting on a bench at The Stow shopping centre in Harlow, Essex, at 11.30pm on August 27 last year. A group of teenagers is said to have thrown something at Mr Jozwik: Fell and hit his head them. Minutes later two boys cycled close by to the men, sparking a ‘disagreement’, and factory worker Mr Jozwik and Radek Koscelski walked over to them.

‘There was some laughter about their English,’ Miss Cottage said.

Mr Koscelski was ‘swaying and drunk’ and may have been argumentative, offering to fight, but made no physical contact, it was claimed. Miss Cottage said that in CCTV footage shown to jurors it appeared Mr Koscelski tripped over his own feet before the defendant, who was ‘quite small for his age’, jumped in the air and ‘swung his arm with force to the head of Mr Jozwik’.

She added: ‘Mr Koscelski was clearly very drunk and the deceased Mr Jozwik was also drunk, but the prosecution says there was no need for violence to be offered to either man.

‘For whatever reason, maybe even immature bravado, the prosecution say that [the boy] took a deliberate decision to use unlawful violence.’

Some of the victim’s family left the courtroom as the footage of the incident was shown. Mr Jozwik, who lived in Harlow, was left lying unconscious in a pool of blood. He died two days later in hospital from head injuries.

The slightly built teenager, who is now 16 and cannot be named for legal reasons, denies manslaughter. He sat next to his father in court rather than in the dock yesterday, because of his age.

The defendant, from Harlow, was part of a group of hooded teenagers who had spent most of the day hanging around the shopping precinct, the court heard.

The third Polish national, Jacub Lusiecki, remained sitting while the other two approached the boys and said he had ‘no idea’ what they were rowing about.

Asked if the pair had seemed aggressive, he replied: ‘No.’

But another teenager said he saw Mr Jozwik and Mr Koscelski shoving two youths and shouting: ‘Fight me, fight me.’ He added: ‘I think [Mr Koscelski] tried pushing the other one away.’

A 16-year- old who was also present claimed the two Poles made racist remarks against members of the group. ‘They was calling them black n***** and all this, being racist,’ he said.

The case continues.

‘Immature bravado’