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Daniel Pelka: Pair Found Guilty Of Murder

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• published: 31 Jul 2013
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Daniel Pelka Was Starved And Abused The court heard the four-year-old was left looking like a "concentration camp victim" after being starved and punished. A mother and stepfather who starved and beat their four-year-old son to death have been found guilty of murder. Daniel Pelka was the victim of an "incomprehensible cycle of cruelty and violence" which left him looking like "a concentration camp victim" before he died of a head injury in March last year. Magdelena Luczak, 27, and Mariusz Krezolek, 34, who arrived from Poland in 2006, had denied subjecting Daniel to a campaign of punishment which reduced his weight to only 10.7kg (24lbs) by the time of his death. The jury at Birmingham Crown Court reached a unanimous verdict in under four hours and the pair will be sentenced on Friday. Detective Inspector Chris Hanson, from West Midlands Police said: "We are very pleased with today's verdicts and that the perpetrators of this rather gruesome crime are behind bars. Daniel Pelka. Daniel was forced to take food from other schoolchildren "It was a wretched murder in my opinion. Daniel was treated so cruelly by both of his parents who betrayed the ultimate trust. "They were supposed to look after Daniel and didn't. This was a prolonged, pre-planned and pre-meditated murder of this little boy and they have worked together to achieve that. "They turned Daniel who was a beautiful little boy into a bag of bones basically. They beat him and left him on his own in a room for two days, to die on his own." The court was told that Daniel was imprisoned in a room with the door handles removed, fed salt when he asked for a drink, deprived of food and forced to defecate in his own bed. Magdelena Luczak. Magdelena Luczak Further cruelty involved being submerged in a cold bath and sent to school with only half a sandwich in his lunchbox. He was so desperate for food he would steal from other lunchboxes at his school in Coventry. Other children had to lock their food away. Staff said he picked up muddy and dirty pancakes from the floor, ate out of bins and even tried to eat beans which had been planted in soil as part of a school experiment. His stepfather was accused of checking Daniel's stomach for swelling when he arrived home from school to discover whether and how much he had eaten. Lisa Windridge from the Crown Prosecution Service said "justice has finally been achieved for Daniel". Dr Karen McLachlan had told the court that over a 30-year career she had never seen a child so emaciated. Daniel Pelka's injuries An image of some of Daniel's injuries "I think most of the jury will have seen pictures of children and adults who have been victims of concentration camps, that's what Daniel looked like." She added that Daniel's ribcage and hip bones were sticking out. Skin was hanging in folds from his thighs and arms. Giving evidence during their trial Luczak and Krezolek blamed each other for the ordeal Daniel suffered. His sibling, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, gave evidence to the court. The child said Daniel would often ask for extra food but was not allowed to go downstairs or leave his bedroom to go to the toilet. Daniel had been put in a "really, really cold bath", his head was banged against the bath and it was left to the sibling to try to look after Daniel. The youngster described how on one occasion Daniel could not be woken up. "I tried to wake him up but I didn't, I couldn't. I listened to his heart but it didn't. It couldn't beat. I shouted and shouted 'what's the matter?' but they didn't come to see." Text messages between Luczak and Krezolek were read to the jury. The boy's mother wrote: "Daniel is crying because he wants to eat." Another text read: "Well now he is temporarily unconscious because I (nearly) drowned him ... I won't be hitting him but if I hear when / as he later wakes up / regains consciousness then he's going back into the bathtub I didn't let the water out." Daniel's stepfather claimed in court that the four-year-old had fallen accidentally on the floor on March 1. He said his partner prevented him from calling an ambulance immediately because social services would notice bruising. A 999 call was made 36 hours after the alleged fall and Daniel was declared deceased at a local hospital. School staff had been alarmed by Daniel's dramatic weight loss. They phoned his GP and spoke to his mother. A full review is under way.