Murder accused 'changed story of killing'

A JURY has been told to look at inconsistencies in the evidence of a Scunthorpe factory worker accused of murdering his partner.

Prosecutor Simon Waley said Zbignew Yacek Madrzak, 52, of Fox Street, had changed his story about the killing to make his case sound better.

In his closing speech he portrayed Madrzak as an angry man who had lost patience with partner Malgorzata Lasak, 52, and decided to kill her to make his problems go away.

The sixth day of Madrzak's trial at Hull Crown Court saw jury members presented with the final arguments about the events leading up to the killing of Miss Lasak in early February 2009.

Madrzak, who was arrested after the body was discovered covered by a blanket by a locksmith in May, admits the killing but denies murder, claiming provocation.

Both sides have accepted Miss Lasak was aggressive and sometimes violent to him when she was drunk.

Madrzak told police in interviews he had dreamed of assaulting Miss Lasak the night before the killing and Mr Waley said it was no surprise this evidence had changed.

He said: "Thinking about assaulting someone in advance does not sit comfortably with suggesting a sudden and temporary loss of self control.

"A dream thinking about this sort of assault sounds a little like pre-meditation.

"The prosecution says it comes as no surprise to you that from the witness box, things have moved on and the dream is now about creatures and demons and he can't really remember whether Miss Lasak featured in the dream or not."

Mr Waley added later: "It's not just the lies, it is the way the lies have come out. The prosecution says that this defendant, by the time that we got to the day of the killing, was not prepared to put up with her behaviour."

Mr Waley described 'increasingly desperate' attempts during the trial to demonstrate provocation.

And he said the evidence suggests Madrzak was, by the end, focused on the amount of his money that Miss Lasak was spending.

But defence barrister William Harbage QC told the court any inconsistencies could be reasonably explained by Polish Madrzak facing a trial in a foreign court and in a foreign language.

In his closing speech to the jury, he said: "The prosecution have put before you their theory that Mr Madrzak got so angry because of the money that he decided to end it all and killed her. I refer to it as a theory, because that is all it is.

"He is being tried for the most serious offence in a foreign language in a foreign place. Think for a moment how you might feel if that was you."

And he told the jurors they must look at the whole context of the relationship between Madrzak and Miss Lasak, highlighting the 'slow burn' effect of her physical, psychological and financial abuse.

Mr Harbage said: "You can't separate off that last day, that last morning. You can't look it in splendid isolation.

"She subjected him to foul, really foul, abuse. You didn't get all the words of it. A lot of people were too embarrassed to say the sort of things she said.

"This is why you can't separate that last morning from what was going on. There is the drip, drip, drip effect."

The judge is set to sum up the case today and the jury is expected to begin considering its verdict.