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Daniel Pelka resembled a ‘concentration camp victim’ and weighed less than a toddler when he died following an ‘incomprehensible’ campaign of cruelty carried out by the evil pair.
‘Callous and wretched’ Magdalena Luczak, 27, and stepfather Mariusz Krezolek, 34, imprisoned the little boy in a locked box room, force-fed him salt and held him underwater in a bath until he was unconscious
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| Daniel. |
Police, social services, school staff and NHS workers missed countless opportunities to intervene and yet not one professional has faced disciplinary action, A serious case review has been launched into their failure to prevent his death, Daniel’s factory worker stepfather is a wanted criminal in Poland who will be jailed if he ever returns to his homeland, His drug-taking mother was thought to be a prostitute in Poland.
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| Daniel's Mother |
During the nine-week trial, Birmingham Crown Court heard how Daniel was systematically starved, tortured, force-fed salt and locked in a home-made cell in Coventry for days.
He was so frightened of Krezolek – who forced him to perform punishment exercises such as squat thrusts – that he would wet himself when spoken to by an adult man.
By the time he died a few months short of his fifth birthday he weighed 1st 9lbs, the same as an 18-month-old child.
He was so frightened of Krezolek – who forced him to perform punishment exercises such as squat thrusts – that he would wet himself when spoken to by an adult man.
By the time he died a few months short of his fifth birthday he weighed 1st 9lbs, the same as an 18-month-old child.
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| Daniel's Step Father |
He also stood 3ft 3inches tall, six inches smaller than the average. His body bore 30 separate injuries, including the fatal bleed on his brain caused by a violent assault to the head.
Police never established which of the pair delivered the blow, but Daniel spent his final hours locked in his cell on the mattress he was forced to use as a bed and toilet.
By the time Luczak made a ‘staged’ 999 call on March 3 last year, two days after the assault, he had been dead for a few hours.
Luczak and Krezolek were arrested two days later after a post mortem examination found Daniel died from a large subdural haematoma.
When the couple’s computer was examined, 55 internet searches including ‘table salt overdose’, ‘when a child stops responding’ and ‘patient in a coma’ had been made.
"Once again crucial questions need to be asked about how a youngster slipped through the child protection net with the most catastrophic of consequences'" Peter Wanless, NSPCC
Krezolek, who was described as a ‘monster’ in court, also admitted that he went online to check his bank account and the price of car tyres after the assault. Birmingham Crown Court also heard that the couple had sex just hours before they were arrested. Luczak later accused Krezolek of raping her.
But days later she was observed holding and stroking her lover’s hand in the dock of Coventry magistrates' court as the pair appeared charged with murder.
In court, the couple both denied muirder and blamed each other for his death, with Luczak claiming Krezolek attacked Daniel after he wet the bed and Krezolek saying he was injured in a series of falls. But prosecutor Jonas Hankin, QC, said a series of sickening texts in Polish between the pair showed the extent to which they acted as a ‘team’ to abuse the boy.
At the time of the abuse, Krezolek and Luczak were both drinking heavily and taking drugs, including cannabis and amphetamines. The court heard how the couple managed to trick officials into believing that Daniel was suffering from a genetically inherited eating disorder which left him permanently hungry.
His teacher Lisa Godfrey described seeing him scavenging in classmates’ lunch boxes for food and likened his gaunt appearance to that of a ‘leukaemia’ sufferer.
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| Teacher, Lisa Godfrey |
Witnesses said he was ‘disappearing’ inside his school uniform and looked ‘desperate and lonely’. By then, he had been reduced to looking in playground bins.
The pair told the school that he should not be fed as it would interfere with the medication for the fictional condition, so staff locked up the other children’s lunch boxes.
But despite their concerns and suspicions – especially after teaching staff saw him with bruising to his neck and black eyes – nothing was done.
The pair told the school that he should not be fed as it would interfere with the medication for the fictional condition, so staff locked up the other children’s lunch boxes.
But despite their concerns and suspicions – especially after teaching staff saw him with bruising to his neck and black eyes – nothing was done.
Police were also aware of both defendants and attended the couple’s home at least three times in the year before Daniel’s murder. Social services had become involved after the couple waited 12 hours to take Daniel to hospital when he broke his arm.
Prosecutors believe Krezolek broke Daniel’s arm ‘clean in half’, but the couple said he had fallen off a sofa.
'They left him, starving, locked in a room in the dark to die on his own.’
Peter Wanless of the NSPCC, said: ‘Once again crucial questions need to be asked about how a youngster slipped through the child protection net with the most catastrophic of consequences.’
A serious case review into the tragedy, commissioned by Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Board, is due to be completed in September.
The 999 call that came too late: How Daniel's mother and stepfather failed to act
By the time Mariusz Krezolek summoned urgent medical help by dialling 999 at 3.07am on March 3 last year, Daniel Pelka was already dead.
Although paramedics arrived just seven minutes later and made efforts to revive Daniel, they immediately noticed his emaciated body was cold to the touch and that his lips were blue.
A serious case review into the tragedy, commissioned by Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Board, is due to be completed in September.
The 999 call that came too late: How Daniel's mother and stepfather failed to act
By the time Mariusz Krezolek summoned urgent medical help by dialling 999 at 3.07am on March 3 last year, Daniel Pelka was already dead.
Although paramedics arrived just seven minutes later and made efforts to revive Daniel, they immediately noticed his emaciated body was cold to the touch and that his lips were blue.
A 10-strong medical team attempted to resuscitate the boy at Coventry's University Hospital before death was formally pronounced at 3.50am.
But detectives and medical professionals are sure Daniel had died before the emergency services were alerted - and that the 999 call featuring Krezolek and then Magdelena Luczak was a cruel and heartless sham.
After taking over the call from Krezolek, Daniel's mother gave details of his condition which were obviously bogus given the brain injury he was later found to have suffered. Luczak can be heard crying and giving her partner instructions in Polish on the 999 recording.
In the first of a litany of lies to the authorities about the death, Luczak told the operator: 'He started feeling very bad today.'
After asserting that Daniel had 'complained of pain' and nothing more, Luczak added: 'He's stopped breathing, please help me.'
Commenting on the emergency call, Detective Inspector Chris Hanson, who oversaw the murder inquiry, said: 'I have listened to lots of 999 calls over the years because a basic line of inquiry when a child has died is to listen to the 999 tapes because you can hear some very significant comments in the background.
'Very often you find that you can't understand what (parents) are saying because they are so anxious they're screaming for help.
'This was different because it was rather more calculated and sounded rather more coached.
'Straight-away I just felt: "that's not true, that's been staged if you like".
'I thought this is very different, it doesn't sound right - and it's been proved it wasn't.'
An overpowering stepfather who used Polish Army experience to speed boy’s starvation
Bull-necked Mariusz Krezolek used his experience of a year in the Polish Army to devise punishment exercises he knew would hasten Daniel Pelka's emaciation. The powerfully-built plasterer, who worked in an automotive plant while living in Coventry, forced his starving stepson to use precious calories performing squats and other energy-sapping drills. Also a trained brick-layer, Krezolek once told a work colleague that Daniel was 'retarded' and should be sent back to his biological father in Poland.
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| Daniel's Biological Father |
Krezolek, who boasted at work about having served jail sentences for driving offences, told the colleague in the summer of 2011: 'It's not even worth beating him because he won't feel pain as he's autistic.' In other disturbing comments, Krezolek also informed the same work-mate that Daniel was 'all f***** up' and 'a very bad person'.
Born in the small town of Trzebnica in south-western Poland in June 1979, Krezolek showed not a shred of remorse during 17 hours and six minutes in the witness box.
The former soldier was accused of faking tears and even grinned in the absence of the jury as he sought to minimise his role during five days of testimony.
In his at times heart-breakingly callous account, Daniel's stepfather admitted he would not have subjected a child of his own to the punishments and cruelties Daniel was forced to endure.
On his fourth day in the witness box, Krezolek appeared to take pleasure from confirming he and Luczak had sex on the eve of their arrest, two nights after Daniel died.
The following exchange then took place between Krezolek - who said Daniel had been 'pushed to the back burner' - and prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC.
Mr Hankin: I am interested to know how you were able to treat a little boy in the way that you did, was it because he was not your own flesh and blood?
Krezolek: It happened because I simply wanted to satisfy Magda.
Mr Hankin: 'You had no respect for Daniel as a human being did you?
Krezolek: I did.
Mr Hankin: When was the last time you cuddled him?
Krezolek: I cannot remember. He simply didn't come for cuddling.
Mr Hankin: You have told the jury that little boy lived in the shadow of alcoholism and violence. Who in the quiet periods needed care more than Daniel?
Krezolek: Of course it was needed for Daniel more than anyone else but it was the arguments that made a man simply think about something else.
Mr Hankin: When was the last time in life you tucked him into bed?
Krezolek: I cannot remember.
Mr Hankin: Read him a bed-time story?
Krezolek: I cannot remember.
Mr Hankin: When did you bathe him?
Luczak appeared at ease in the dock as she and Krezolek used their thumbs to stroke each other's hands for around 20 minutes, giving the lie to her claim to be terrified of him.
A superior command of English compared with Krezolek meant Luczak was in demand to fill out benefit claim forms for Polish friends - and able to tell health workers Daniel was being given cereal in the morning, Polish stew at tea-time, and supper before going to bed.
Witnesses told the trial Luczak was aggressive towards professionals, particularly the doctors who called in social services after Daniel suffered a broken arm 14 months before his murder.
Said by her sister to be a heavy abuser of alcohol who became argumentative and sometimes violent in drink, Luczak was noted by friends to have an almost obsessive interest in her appearance.
The former cleaning worker used a dietary supplement designed to ensure her hair and nails remained healthy - at a time when Daniel's bones had stopped growing due to his needless malnutrition.
Born and raised in Lodz, the third largest city in Poland, Luczak worked as a cleaner and at a Parcelforce depot after settling in Coventry in February 2006.
Luczak, who had three previous troubled relationships with men her sister said were 'not good for her' before meeting Krezolek, told her trial she was at a loss to explain why she allowed her partner to deprive Daniel of food.
In evidence which the Crown said was simply an attempt to deflect blame onto Krezolek, Luczak, alleged that Daniel was mistreated for around five months before being beaten around the head by her partner, who then tried to strangle her.
But she admitted keeping the abuse secret - and passing up 16 opportunities to alert health and other professionals to the abuse between February 9, 2011 and February 7, 2012.
During her trial, Luczak was asked by Krezolek's barrister why she had not taken Daniel to a doctor as he lost weight.
Luczak replied: 'Because Daniel would always have a lot of bruises. I tried to make it secret, what was happening to him - that is why I didn't go to the doctor's.'
Krezolek's QC, Nigel Lambert, then demanded of Luczak: 'Why on earth would you do that to your son?'
Speaking through a Polish interpreter, Luczak answered: 'I don't know ... I don't understand my behaviour.
But she admitted keeping the abuse secret - and passing up 16 opportunities to alert health and other professionals to the abuse between February 9, 2011 and February 7, 2012.
During her trial, Luczak was asked by Krezolek's barrister why she had not taken Daniel to a doctor as he lost weight.
Luczak replied: 'Because Daniel would always have a lot of bruises. I tried to make it secret, what was happening to him - that is why I didn't go to the doctor's.'
Krezolek's QC, Nigel Lambert, then demanded of Luczak: 'Why on earth would you do that to your son?'
Speaking through a Polish interpreter, Luczak answered: 'I don't know ... I don't understand my behaviour.
'It wasn't me, it was Mariusz but I knew what was happening.
'I myself don't understand my actions. I must have loved Mariusz to allow such a thing.'
Bizarrely, given her treatment of Daniel and the 'foul' conditions in his room, Luczak kept the other parts of her home spotless.
Detective Inspector Chris Hanson, who led the murder inquiry, recalls that several plug-in air fresheners located throughout the house had been set to the highest setting as the couple supposedly grieved for Daniel.
Other items had been hidden from police and it is thought the air fresheners were an attempt to hide the smell from Daniel's room.
'On the outside, they did portray this normal household - the father going to work, mum looking after Daniel, but actually in reality we now know what was going on,' Mr Hanson added.
'It shows how sophisticated the conspiracy was to conceal what they were doing to Daniel from the authorities and everybody else.'
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| Destroyed door so nobody will be able to open it |
In the months before his murder Daniel Pelka arrived at school with black eyes and a broken arm but chances to save him were still missed.
The four-year-old, who was systematically starved and beaten in a case of 'incomprehensible' cruelty, was even described as a 'bag of bones' and caught stealing food from bins and other pupils.
But despite his intolerable suffering he still died at the hands of his mother and step-father, Magdalena Luczak and Mariusz Krezolek under the noses of the authorities.
The schoolboy was left to die in his unheated 'cell' home for around 33 hours after suffering a fatal head injury at his Coventry home on March 1 last year.
His parents' trial, which ended in a guilty verdict for both yesterday, heard how 22 days before he was beaten to death Daniel was seen by a community paediatrician because he was so emaciated.
The appointment with Dr Supratik Chakraborthy was just one of a string of attempts to help Daniel, who was at the centre of a police inquiry after suffering a broken arm 14 months before his death.
During his last two months of life, Daniel was also sent to school with two black eyes and observed by his class teacher to have bruising on his neck.
Although action was taken to monitor and assist Daniel and his family, a serious case review into the horrifying circumstances of his death will examine why opportunities to save him were missed.
It is also expected to look at why social services were not alerted to Daniel's plight during the campaign of starvation waged against him over six months.
The inquiry, set up by Coventry's Safeguarding Children Board, is also expected to scrutinise the investigation launched after Daniel's left arm was broken on January 5, 2011.
After Daniel was taken to Coventry's University Hospital the next day, his mother Magdelena Luczak told a consultant her son may have sustained the injury while playing in the living room.
Medics were informed that Daniel had been jumping off a sofa with his sibling and had complained of pain the following morning.
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| catalogue of injuries inflicted on little Daniel Pelka, which were found when his body was examined |
But the consultant, who counted six bruises near the displaced 'spiral' fracture to the upper arm, called in child protection experts due to doubts about Luczak's account and Daniel's delayed attendance at hospital.
At a follow-up appointment at the same hospital on January 17, Luczak became 'very angry' that social services had been contacted, towering over a specialist and telling her: 'In Poland when a child breaks his arm, the doctors look at the child, not the parents.'
The inquiry, which saw the sibling corroborate the false account, eventually led to a police decision to take no further action, and social services closed their file on Daniel in June 2011.
At a follow-up appointment at the same hospital on January 17, Luczak became 'very angry' that social services had been contacted, towering over a specialist and telling her: 'In Poland when a child breaks his arm, the doctors look at the child, not the parents.'
The inquiry, which saw the sibling corroborate the false account, eventually led to a police decision to take no further action, and social services closed their file on Daniel in June 2011.
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| Teaching assistant Amy Tokely |
Between July 2011 and September 2011, when Daniel started at Little Heath Primary School, there were several further contacts between health workers and Luczak.
An educational welfare officer and a school nurse also paid visits to Daniel's home on various dates between August and December 2011.
Senior and junior teaching staff, including Daniel's class teacher Lisa Godfrey and Little Heath's headmaster Darren Clews, gave evidence to the trial.
Miss Godfrey told the jury how when Daniel first attended the school he was always well-dressed and looked smart and well cared for.
Although he was noted to be solemn and not to be interacting with other children, Daniel seemed to be a child with the potential to be bright.
But he did not make the progress that other foreign-speaking pupils made and was initially observed to be eating up to five pieces of fruit a day, in addition to 'devouring' his packed lunch of Polish bread, a slice of meat and loose crisps.
During November and December 2011, Daniel was noted to be taking food from other children's lunch boxes, a problem which became progressively worse.
Miss Godfrey initially spoke to Luczak in November about Daniel's behaviour and noted that she 'barely looked at' her son and was very stern with him.
In what became a common account to numerous professionals, Luczak claimed Daniel had an appointment with a doctor about his 'excessive' eating habits.
Luczak was spoken to again by Miss Godfrey before the Christmas holidays about Daniel's poor attendance levels, and claimed he had been sick after 'raiding the fridge' in the night.
An educational welfare officer and a school nurse also paid visits to Daniel's home on various dates between August and December 2011.
Senior and junior teaching staff, including Daniel's class teacher Lisa Godfrey and Little Heath's headmaster Darren Clews, gave evidence to the trial.
Miss Godfrey told the jury how when Daniel first attended the school he was always well-dressed and looked smart and well cared for.
Although he was noted to be solemn and not to be interacting with other children, Daniel seemed to be a child with the potential to be bright.
But he did not make the progress that other foreign-speaking pupils made and was initially observed to be eating up to five pieces of fruit a day, in addition to 'devouring' his packed lunch of Polish bread, a slice of meat and loose crisps.
During November and December 2011, Daniel was noted to be taking food from other children's lunch boxes, a problem which became progressively worse.
Miss Godfrey initially spoke to Luczak in November about Daniel's behaviour and noted that she 'barely looked at' her son and was very stern with him.
In what became a common account to numerous professionals, Luczak claimed Daniel had an appointment with a doctor about his 'excessive' eating habits.
Luczak was spoken to again by Miss Godfrey before the Christmas holidays about Daniel's poor attendance levels, and claimed he had been sick after 'raiding the fridge' in the night.
During his time at Little Heath, according to staff members, if Daniel was upset he would 'whimper' rather than cry to show displeasure,
Another teacher who came into contact with Daniel said she had picked him up after he fell and he felt 'like a bag of bones'.
The same teacher told the court: 'He just felt small. He felt very skinny - it didn't feel like healthy slimness.'
Mr Clews told the court Daniel had been absent for 24 days during the autumn term - with further absences in January and February.
As a result of the concerns about attendance, the school's learning mentor contacted an educational welfare officer who later conducted visits to Daniel's home.
Following the Christmas holidays, Daniel continued to steal and scavenge for food at school, even eating half a 15-slice birthday cake.
By this time his appearance had changed markedly, and he sometimes hid food in his trousers or ate in secret.
On January 16 last year, Miss Godfrey spotted four dot-shaped bruises around the right side of Daniel's neck, which were recorded in the school's concerns book.
At the beginning of February, Luczak was again spoken to by school staff and assured them Daniel was seeing a doctor for his problems.
At some point before February 10, when the school closed for an extended half-term, Miss Godfrey also reported seeing Daniel with two black eyes and a scratch of his nose, and informed Mr Clews.
But Luczak was not spoken to about what Miss Godfrey had seen and no written record was made of the apparent injury.
Mr Clews's account of the second report of an injury differed from that of Miss Godfrey - with him describing Daniel as having a graze on the side of his head which was not serious enough to be entered into the concerns book.
During the inquiry into the second incident, a child was spoken to and claimed Daniel had been pushed over by another youngster the previous day while walking in the street.
On February 10 - three weeks before Daniel's death - he was seen by Dr Chakraborthy after a referral made by the school nurse.
Dr Chakraborthy was told that Daniel, who did not speak to any adult during the appointment, had an insatiable appetite and was aggressive towards anyone who denied him food.
In his evidence to the murder trial, Dr Chakraborthy said he had no reason to suspect Luczak was lying and had considered a hypermetabolic disorder, as well as an autistic spectrum disorder, as the cause of the boy's problems.
A full examination was carried out at the appointment and Daniel was recorded as being thin but not 'wasted' with no bruising on his body or limbs.
Blood tests were also carried out as a result of the appointment and a referral was made for Daniel to be further examined by a specialist consultant.
After the February half-term, Daniel looked very unwell at Little Heath, seemed more placid than normal and was no longer 'inventive' in his efforts to find food.
On February 27, Daniel 'looked like an old man' with sunken eyes and appeared to be 'sad, desperate and lonely' as he ate dried beans in a sand-pit.
Police were also called out twice to deal with drunken domestic arguments during the year that Krezolek and Luczak lived at the home where Daniel was murdered.
TEXT MESSAGES THAT HELPED CONVICT KILLER MOTHER AND STEPFATHER
When Magdelena Luczak was arrested at her home she was shaking, appeared to be extremely nervous - and was holding the mobile phone which helped to convict her of murder. Text messages sent from the handset provided evidence of the defendants' drug and alcohol abuse, their remorseless mistreatment of Daniel Pelka, and their attempts to keep the abuse from teachers, social workers and medical staff.
Listed in chronological order, here are some of the text messages which passed between Mariusz Krezolek and Luczak, translated into English from Polish for the court proceedings.
October 7, 2011
8.46am - Sent by Krezolek: 'Magda, lead him to the room and lock him there, you'll have some peace and do wait for me.'
9.15am - Sent by Luczak: 'We'll deal with Rudy (Daniel) after school, he won't see grub at all. I'm going home now call me on your break.'
12.24pm - Sent by Luczak: 'Let's buy the white stuff instead of Vodka today. We would have some fun later and you could sit at the computer and look for a car.'
October 21, 2011
6.43am - Sent by Luczak: 'When you're going to the shop then do remove Rudy's door handle so (Daniel's sibling) won't be opening the door for him.'
12.04pm - Sent by Luczak: 'Buy salt as a must, if you have enough money then sugar as well.'
November 15, 2011
9.35am - Sent by Luczak: 'I'll call this clinic and change this appointment for (Daniel) because he's even more ill than he was.'
December 14, 2011
9.40am - Sent by Luczak: 'I was telling you I'd be having problems and a punishment because he's not at school. The hags from the council were here!'
February 1, 2012
8.54am - Sent by Luczak: 'You were striking him by the hands and he's saying in the lady's presence that it's hurting and I told him if he doesn't talk such nonsense he'd get a chocolate bar later on.'
February 2, 2012
7.47am - Sent by Luczak: 'One of his hands is livid blue and what am I supposed to do now.'
8.24am - Sent by Luczak: 'I rubbed this hand of his with antibiotic ointment and I'll call school before 9.'
10.21am - Sent by Luczak: 'Well now he's temporarily unconscious because I nearly drowned him. He's already in bed covered with the duvet and asleep and I am having some quiet time.'
10.24am - Sent by Luczak: 'I won't be hitting him but if I hear him when he later wakes up then he's going back to the bathtub. I didn't let the water out.'
February 8, 2012
12.11pm - Sent by Luczak: 'I'm leaving these marks of yours to you as they aren't coming off.'
March 2, 2012
4.34pm - Sent by Luczak to Krezolek, as Daniel lay dying of a brain injury: 'He'll get over it by tomorrow. There is no point to stress ourselves out and to call an ambulance because that will cause proper problems.'
December 14, 2011
9.40am - Sent by Luczak: 'I was telling you I'd be having problems and a punishment because he's not at school. The hags from the council were here!'
February 1, 2012
8.54am - Sent by Luczak: 'You were striking him by the hands and he's saying in the lady's presence that it's hurting and I told him if he doesn't talk such nonsense he'd get a chocolate bar later on.'
February 2, 2012
7.47am - Sent by Luczak: 'One of his hands is livid blue and what am I supposed to do now.'
8.24am - Sent by Luczak: 'I rubbed this hand of his with antibiotic ointment and I'll call school before 9.'
10.21am - Sent by Luczak: 'Well now he's temporarily unconscious because I nearly drowned him. He's already in bed covered with the duvet and asleep and I am having some quiet time.'
10.24am - Sent by Luczak: 'I won't be hitting him but if I hear him when he later wakes up then he's going back to the bathtub. I didn't let the water out.'
February 8, 2012
12.11pm - Sent by Luczak: 'I'm leaving these marks of yours to you as they aren't coming off.'
March 2, 2012
4.34pm - Sent by Luczak to Krezolek, as Daniel lay dying of a brain injury: 'He'll get over it by tomorrow. There is no point to stress ourselves out and to call an ambulance because that will cause proper problems.'
DailyMail
This is just so sad and heartbreaking. may the poor boy rest in peace and these psychos be punished.
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