Man killed his two-year-old son ‘out of spite towards ex-partner’, court told

A MAN who allegedly murdered his son killed the two-year-old out of spite towards his ex-partner, a court has heard.

Prosecutors said Lukasz Czapla’s fury towards his former partner Patrycja Szczesniak is what motivated him to kill their son

Julius at his home address in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, in November 2020.

The 41-year-old former IT technician is on trial accused of murdering the toddler, who was shot in the head with a BB gun, stabbed with a skewer-like instrument and smothered with a pillow.

Czapla has previously offered to plead guilty to culpable homicide, but this has been rejected by the Crown.

At a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Alan Cameron, prosecuting, told a 15-strong jury that the accused was “motivated with anger towards Patrycja when he killed his son”.

After referencing details of how Julius was killed, and a conversation between Czapla and his friend Wojciech Marchlewski where the accused said he would “kill” or “smash” his son, Mr Cameron said to the jury: “You should be in no doubt to convict him of the crime of murder based on that evidence.”

He then re-read a transcript from a phone call between the accused and Mr Marchlewski which took place several weeks after the alleged murder.

It included comments such as: “I started talking to myself that she was so f ****** annoying... for f***’s sake I am so f ****** pissed off... the way she ignores me, it really angers me... I was absolutely rageous about her, how could she ignore me?”

Earlier, the court saw text messages between the two parents, hours before Julius was killed, where Ms Szczesniak had mentioned a new partner.

When asked by Czapla for more details about him, she declined to comment further.

Messages were then sent from the accused to Ms Szczesniak that contained sexual content.

A final message Czapla sent to her before he killed their son included: “You’re raising him with another guy, soon enough I’ll have to pay alimony.”

Czapla has pleaded guilty to nine other charges which include dangerous driving, drug possession and having an air weapon.