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0 Comments | Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, Feb 2, 2010 | by Tim Sculthorpe

A WOMAN may have lay dead in a Scunthorpe house for more than three months before her decomposing body was found by a locksmith, Hull Crown Court heard.

Zbignew Yacek Madrzak, 52, of Fox Street, Scunthorpe, admits killing his partner Malgorzata Lasak, but claims he was provoked and denies a murder charge.

On the first day of Madrzak’s trial, prosecutor Simon Waley told the jury of seven men and five women: “The state of decomposition was so bad by the time she was found she could not be readily identified.

“Police were led to use DNA techniques to establish her identity.” Miss Lasak, 52, was discovered by a locksmith who had been sent to change the locks at 26 Fox Street on May 1, 2009, because rent had not been paid at the property since January. After entering through the front door and walking through the house, the locksmith saw a bundle on the floor.

In his opening statement to the jury, Mr Waley said: “He noticed there was a hand and a foot protruding from underneath the blanket and quickly withdrew and made contact with the police.”

Mr Waley told the jury a postmortem established Miss Lasak suffered multiple stab wounds through her back and chest, a skull fracture and defensive wounds to her right hand.

Other injuries included bruising and a fractured eye socket.

Madrzak told police in interviews after his arrest that Miss Lasak had drunk too much, spent all his money and had been violent to him, Mr Waley said.

The prosecutor said Madrzak told police he had lost all control when provoked by Miss Lasak, but Mr Waley argued his reaction was ‘unreasonable’.

The court heard from Miss Lasak’s son Pawel Godlweski, 29, who said he had organised his mother’s move to Britain in December 2005.

Speaking through an interpreter he said: “I arranged everything because my friend’s sister worked here in this country.”

Ms Lasak had earlier lost her job in Poland and she began drinking more heavily, Mr Godlewski said.

He continued: “This is why I tried to organise her coming to this country.

I feel a bit guilty because of that now.”

On the relationship between his mother and the defendant, he added: “I don’t know what was between them personally, but to me he seemed to be strange.”

Under cross-examination from defence barrister William Harbage, Mr Godlewski admitted the move to Scunthorpe had not resolved his mother’s drinking.

He told the court: “I wanted her to change her life to remove her from her friends that were the main reason of her drinking “Sometimes she stopped and when she came to England there was a huge improvement.

“For the first year she had not drunk.”

He added later: “I understand there might have been arguments – but it was not as the defendant is suggesting.”

Mr Godlewski was asked by Mr Harbage about a letter he had written appealing to his mother to treat Madrzak better.

He said: “He seemed to be a victim at that moment in time.”

The victim’s brother, Zbigniew Janusz Lasak told the court he had last seen his sister during Christmas 2008 when he stayed at Fox Street between December 5, 2008, and January 11, 2009.

Asked if his sister had been drinking the Christmas before she died, Mr Lasak said everyone had been drinking beer and he said vodka was drunk on special occasions.

Mr Harbage pressed Mr Lasak on an alleged row where it is claimed Miss Lasak smashed furniture, including a plasma TV.

Mr Lasak denied things were broken but said he had heard three or four arguments while he stayed at Fox Street.

He said: “All the time I was there I was watching the same TV.”

And he added: “I did not pay attention to what they were saying or what they were arguing about.”

The trial continues.

There was a hand and a foot ” protruding from underneath the blanket and quickly withdrew and made contact with the police Prosecutor Simon Waley