I feel his fear and suffering every day, says mother of boy killed for revenge
Father murdered two-year-old after ex-partner started new relationship
THE mother of a Scots toddler murdered by her former partner has told of her anguish and says she “feels his fear and pain every day”.
Lukasz Czapla, 41, shot, stabbed and smothered his two-year-old son Juliusz at his home in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, in November 2020 to get back at the child’s mother, Patrycja Szczesniak, for starting a new relationship.
Jurors at the High Court in Edinburgh took three hours to conclude that Czapla was guilty of murder prompting Judge Lord Beckett to jail him for a minimum of 23 years for the “truly evil act”.
In a statement issued to Police Scotland Ms Szczesniak said: “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.
“I can’t imagine what his little, helpless heart felt that night and I feel his fear and pain every day. He was part of me, part of my heart and soul.
“There is no sentence that will bring my angel back to life. We will fight to ensure that monster never leaves prison.”
The court heard how Ms Szczesniak had split from Czapla in June that year but was happy to allow him look after her son.
However, on the night of November 20, she told Czapla that she was seeing someone else in a text message.
This prompted him to send her a barrage of texts inquiring about her new partner and their sex life and Ms Szczesniak did not respond.
Czapla had spent the evening drinking beer and downed anti-depressants with wine before he shot Juliusz three times in the head with a gas powered air pistol.
Three ball bearings were later recovered from the infant’s head.
He then stabbed the toddler with a metal skewer before smothering him with a pillow and later drove off, committing road traffic offences as he tried to flee.
During proceedings, witness Joanne Gorrie, 27, described the moment Ms Szczesniak discovered her son’s body.
She said: “She started shouting ‘my baby, my baby, he killed my baby. Please help my baby’.”
They had driven to Czapla’s flat after Ms Szczesniak received a text message in which he threatened to take his and Juliusz’s life.
After knocking on the door she saw her former partner staggering and bloody after looking through the letterbox.
She said “When I saw him covered in blood I started shouting and kicking the door.” She told police that when she got
into the property she asked Czapla where Juliusz was and he pointed to a bedroom.
She said her son was lying on a bed.
“His head was covered in blood and his face was blue. I knew he was dead,” she said.
She managed to get out the door of the flat and shouted to a neighbour to call the police saying: “He has killed Juliusz.”
It was initially thought that Czapla had a mental health condition that had left him with diminished responsibility.
But consultant psychiatrist Dr Deborah Mountain concluded that there was no evidence of a mental disorder.
She recalled how Czapla was more concerned about what was going to happen to him than the death of his child.
Another psychiatrist told the court that Czapla did have poor mental health – but his depression wasn’t so bad that it made him commit murder.
Detectives also managed to find other evidence which showed that Czapla’s actions were deliberate.
His childhood friend Wojciech Marchlewski,41, said that Czapla had “joked” about killing the child earlier in November.
“He laughed at the end of it.
“I felt so awkward but at the same time it didn’t surprise me because Lukasz used to joke like this.”
Czapla told jurors that he assaulted the child because he had decided to end his own life after learning of his former partner’s new relationship and didn’t want to leave his son alone.
He said he cut his own wrists and shot himself in the chest and then “shot him (Juliusz) in the head.”
Passing sentence, Lord Beckett said that the use of drink and drugs had provided him with “no excuse” for the murder.
He added: “You acted out of spite to punish his mother for leaving you and getting on with her life.
“Suffice to say you showed
considerable determination to ensure that a defenceless child would die in considerable distress.”
In her statement, Ms Szczesniak told of a happy little boy who “lit up the place wherever he showed up”.
She said: “It is breaking our hearts that we are no longer able to take his hand and lead him through life.
“To watch him enjoy riding his bike and eating his favourite ice cream.
“Listen to his giggling and laughing and being amazed by the things he learned every day.
“There was so much we wanted to show him but this chance was brutally taken from us and now the only thing we can do is to prey for the highest possible punishment.
“Czapla should not have the right to any defence and we will fight to ensure that monster never leaves prison.
“My suffering and my pain will stay with me for the rest of my life. But the unconditional love I have for my baby; my dearest child Juliusz will never end.
“My family, friends and l will miss him dearly and we will suffer his loss until the end of our days.
“Juliuszek left us the most
beautiful memories that will remain in our hearts forever.”
Jurors were excused from serving in another trial for 10 years and have been offered counselling.
Lord Beckett added: “Those of us who work in these courts and the people in this trial who have been working in these courts for many years are familiar with some of the most awful aspects of human behaviour.
“But even with the considerable experience around the table in this case, I suspect this case perhaps exceeds the awfulness of so many other cases that we hear.”
Czapla sat in the dock wearing a surgical mask between two security officers with his head bowed as the judge delivered his sentence.
He will be released once the parole board consider he no longer poses a threat to public safety
Defence advocate Iain Mcsporran QC told the court: “He stands convicted of the most appalling crime of murder of his own young son.
“A dreadful crime which brought an end to the life of that young boy and has destroyed lives of others.
“For what it’s worth that includes his own.”