An ‘evil’ couple who murdered a 15-year-old boy after subjecting him to an ‘utterly horrific and prolonged campaign of extreme physical and mental abuse’ have been jailed for nearly 80 years.
Sebastian Kalinowski died of an infection caused by ‘untreated complications of multiple rib fractures’, after weeks of what prosecutors described as ‘cruel assaults and abuse’ at the hands of his mother Agnieszka Kalinowska, 35, and her long-term partner Andrzej Latoszewski, 38.
The schoolboy, who had been in the UK for less than a year after moving from Poland to live with his mum, was forced to endure depraved ‘punishments’ for ‘petty, childish misdemeanours’ like dropping his food on the floor or going to the toilet during the night.
They included being beaten with a bed slat, whipped with an extension cable, stabbed with a needle, and berated with ‘the most derogatory and inhuman’ verbal abuse.
After the trial, the judge, Mrs Justice Lambert, excused the jurors from ever having to sit on another case after they had to watch ‘horrifying’ footage of Sebastian screaming in pain while he was tortured by martial arts enthusiast Latoszewski while Kalinowska either ignored what was happening or joined in the abuse.
Jailing the pair, she said: ‘Anyone who has watched even part of the CCTV footage of what took place in that house last summer could only be utterly horrified at what they saw, and quite bewildered that anyone would behave this way towards a teenage boy, let alone one who should be a much-loved child or step-child.’
She told them: ‘You, Latoszewski, are a bully. Like all bullies, you sought to intimidate and frighten Sebastian, who was weaker than you. In Sebastian you found an easy prey.
‘There were times when viewing the footage I was sure you had lost awareness of the fact that you were hitting a human being and not a punching bag.
‘As for you, Kalinowska, the explanation is simple – you just didn’t care about Sebastian. You were only interested in yourself.’
Both were handed life sentences with minimum terms of 39 years.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Sebastian’s father Jacek Kalinowski called Kalinowska ‘the greatest evil that walks this Earth’.
He said: ‘In a cruel and heartless way you have taken the life of my son. You turned every day of Sebastian’s life into a nightmare.
‘Why did you hate him to that degree when you allowed that psychopath to treat Sebastian like that, and then you readily participated in the whole thing.
‘You inflicted so much pain and humiliation on him. You made my son a punchbag for yourself, you committed a terrifying act and you were merciless.
‘I made many mistakes as a parent. Perhaps I was not able to be a perfect father, but I loved Sebastian. However I could not protect him from evil, evil which was inflicted on him by his own mother.’
Mrs Justice Lambert was broadcast handing down her sentence – the third time cameras have been allowed into an English criminal crown court to record a sentencing.
The trial in June heard Sebastian came to Huddersfield from Poland in October 2020, with teaching staff describing him as ‘a pleasant and well-mannered boy’ who ‘was observed to be quiet and timid, and at times appeared sad’.
Prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said that by New Year’s Eve the defendants’ attitude was that Sebastian was ‘something of a hindrance’, and that from January 2021, ‘the disciplining of (him) became progressively harsh’.
The court heard his ‘punishments’ were ‘by any stretch of the imagination cruel and became increasingly more severe and violent over time’.
After the couple were arrested in connection with Sebastian’s death, police seized CCTV cameras from their house, which prosecutors said had been installed partly to ‘monitor and exert control over Sebastian remotely’.
The footage revealed weeks of abuse endured by Sebastian before he died, with footage played to jurors including Latoszewski beating Sebastian’s buttocks with what appears to have been a slat from a bed, making him do exercises, and whipping him with an extension cable to ‘spur him on’.
Video from Latoszewski’s phone also contained clips of him verbally abusing the visibly upset teenager.
On the day before Sebastian’s death, Latoszewski was seen on CCTV forcing food and drink into the boy’s mouth and stabbing him a number of times with a needle in the groin and thigh.
Mr Pitter told the trial that Latoszeski was ‘apparently laughing whilst he did so’, and that Kalinowska at one point ‘took over stabbing Sebastian with the needle’.
Jurors heard that, on the morning of Sebastian’s final day, August 13, 2021, he went through ‘the routine of being assaulted by both defendants’.
The court heard CCTV showed Latoszewski taking Sebastian out of the bedroom at 8.25am, before carrying him back around 15 minutes later, ‘naked, clearly wet and unconscious’.
Mr Pitter said emergency services were called to the defendants’ house by Latoszewski after Sebastian had been unconscious for around two and a half hours.
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