(Image: Newsquest)
A jury in a murder trial has heard how the victim suffered two violent blows to the head that rendered him unconscious, with the second blow being inflicted at least half an hour after the first.
Jaroslav 'Yanic' Daniszewski was found lying in a pool of blood on April 22 last year following an all-day drinking session in Shipley with his partner, Beata Walczak, and two other men: Zbigniew Chlebek and Bolestaw Roj.
Walczak, 58, and Chlebek, 67, are on trial for murder at Bradford Crown Court.
The jury heard that it is accepted that Mr Daniszewski was unlawfully killed, and that the weapon used was an iron.
A forensic pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination on 43-year-old Mr Daniszewski noted 24 separate injuries to his head and face consistent with blunt force trauma.
Dr Robert Ainsworth said Mr Daniszewski also had cuts to his hands, which may have been defensive in nature.
There was further evidence from consultant neuropathologist Dr Daniel Du Plessis, who identified two key lesions, or areas of damage, to Mr Daniszewski’s brain that both affected the brain stem – the vital part of the brain that maintains consciousness.
One lesion was a tiny bleed.
The second involved a tear in the brain stem.
Dr Du Plessis told the court that both separate injuries “reflect a head injury event which would involve very substantial force and likely something that caused the head to twist in a very violent and abrupt manner.”
He said the evidence of the brain stem injury indicated that Mr Daniszewski had not died instantly from the brain bleed and that he had in fact survived for around half an hour after the injury to the brain stem.
However, Dr Du Plessis said it was “extremely likely, if not certain” that he would have been rendered “profoundly unconscious”, incapacitated, and immobile by the initial brain bleed.
He said if Mr Daniszewski had been standing when he was attacked, he “would have dropped to the ground and he would have remained there.”
The trial previously heard that Mr Daniszewski, with Walczak, went to Chlebek’s flat on Stead Street in Shipley on April 21 last year.
With Roj, who has since died, the trio began drinking vodka and cans of strong cider whilst listening to music and watching TV.
Sometime over the course of the next few hours, Mr Daniszewski suffered the injuries that led to his death.
The jury previously heard that, during interviews with police, Walczak repeatedly denied being responsible for her partner’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.
In one of four interviews with police, Chlebek said he could not remember anything between being in the living room with Walczak and Mr Daniszewski and later waking up in his bed.
He said the foursome had earlier had soup followed by jelly to eat and had then sat down to start drinking vodka and cider.
He said there had been phone calls, including a 33-minute conversation between himself and a friend named Mario.
He struggled to pin down timescales and when various people had come and gone from his flat.
Asked about the death of Mr Daniszewski and the presence of his body in the flat, Chlebek replied: “It’s making me think really hard. I don’t know. We had too much to drink.”
Asked about waking up and finding Mr Daniszewski’s body, which was lying in the doorway between the bedroom and the living room, Chlebek said: “Yanic was already cold.
“I told Mario, and he told me to call the police.
“I had a problem because my hands were not working properly. I had a problem dialling 999.”
Asked by a police officer why that was, Chlebek replied: “You get the shakes when you’re missing the drink.”
He said he then had a drink of cider and lit a cigarette.
Asked if Mr Daniszewski’s body was still on the floor, he said, “Yes.”
Chlebek denied that there had ever been violence between him and Mr Daniszewski, or with Walczak.
He said: “What can I say? We have lived in peace. We would have a laugh sometimes together.”
Asked directly in his police interview how Mr Daniszewski died, Chlebek replied: “I don’t know.”
Walczak, of Barkerend Road, Bradford, and Chlebek, of Stead Street, Shipley, both deny murder as well as an alternative charge of manslaughter.
The trial continues.