(Image: Newsquest)
A woman accused of killing her partner following an all-day drinking session told police that she woke from a stupor to find him lying dead in a pool of blood.
During interviews with police Beata Walczak repeatedly denied being responsible for Jaroslav Daniszewski’s death or knowing who might have killed him.
She said she was reported as an alcoholic and that memory lapses caused by her drinking meant she sometimes did not know what had happened.
Mr Daniszewski, who was known as Yanic or Jarek, was found in a blood-spattered flat in Shipley on April 22 last year.
A post-mortem later revealed that had been struck with an iron to his head and face, which caused “profound injury” as well as bleeding to his brain.
Walczak, 58, of Barkerend Road, Bradford, and Zbigniew Chlebek, 67, of Stead Street, Shipley, are on trial at Bradford Crown Court.
Both deny murder as well as an alternative charge of manslaughter.
Via transcripts of police interviews that were read to the court, the jury heard how 43-year-old Mr Daniszewski and Walczak, who had been in a relationship for 11 months, arrived at Chlebek’s flat on Stead Street on April 20, which was Easter Sunday.
There they met Chlebek and another man, Bolestaw Roj, who are part of the Polish community. All four began drinking vodka and cans of strong cider whilst listening to music and watching TV.
Walczak described leaving the flat with Mr Daniszewski to buy more alcohol, and that she later went to bed because “I was quite well in drink”.
She woke up on the morning of April 21, Easter Monday, to find Mr Daniszewski in a doorway between the living room and the bedroom.
He was lying on his back. His mouth was open. He was not breathing. There was blood around his head.
In one interview with police, Walczak said: “He was not breathing, and his cheeks were cold.
“There was [no pulse] whatsoever.”
She told police that she attempted to perform CPR and that in the past she had attended a medical secondary school for three years but without graduating.
She added: “I put my hand under his head and when I took it up and pulled it out it was covered in blood all over.
“On top I didn’t see any [blood] but his head was in a pool of blood.”
The police officer asked: “Did it cross your mind that somebody had killed him?”
Walczak replied: “Yes, because there wouldn’t have been so much blood if he had died from his conditions.”
She explained that Mr Daniszewski had problems with his liver and was an alcoholic and that “he couldn’t have died on his own. I was certain of that.”
Asked why she did not call immediately the police, Walczak said: “I really can’t explain this. I ran away.
“I didn’t think that it was Zbigniew and Bolestaw that had done it, and I didn’t see them there.
“I was certain that sooner or later Zbigniew would make this phone call because it happened in his flat.”
The jury heard how Walczak left the body in the flat and caught a bus to her accommodation near Bradford city centre where she put her beige hoodie and dark trousers in a laundry bag before going to sleep.
She told police: “I took them off. They were really dirty because my whole body was sticky [with blood] because I was trying to save his life when I was checking his breathing.”
On April 22 Walczak told staff at her accommodation that Mr Daniszewski had died in her arms. She was arrested the same day.
The court previously heard that Mr Roj, who has since died, made several attempts to call an ambulance during the course of the evening but failed due to language barriers.
He then left.
Asked by police why she failed to report Mr Daniszewski’s death for a whole day, she said: “I can’t answer.
“If he started to breathe or move, I would have carried on. I would have called for an ambulance and the police as well.
“I ran away. I was in fear. I was stressed out; I was really scared.
“I don’t know why I left him behind.”
The trial continues.