Buried woman ‘used ring to escape grave’

Michelina Lewandowska, 27, said she had already been attacked with a Taser and bound hand and foot before she was put in the box by her former fiancé Marcin Kasprazak, who told her he hated her.

Leeds Crown Court heard the box was carried out to the boot of a car and driven to woodland by Kasprazak and he and another man Patryk Borys allegedly then dug a “shallow grave” for it.

Speaking through a Polish interpreter Miss Lewandowska told the jury she prayed to God as she struggled to release herself when they had gone.

When her engagement to Kasprazak had finished they remained living together and she had kept the ring and wore it on her right hand.

“I thought about my ring, that I could take it off my finger and try to cut through the tape with it.

“I cut the tape from my legs with this ring. I put the ring back on my finger then I put my whole hand through the opening.”

She said she started to “tear the box apart” struggling to escape. “I was trying to estimate how much soil was on the box and I think it was 10cm. It could have been more.

“I managed to tear a little apart from this little opening. Then I thought the next thing is to cut the tape because there was no other way to get out.

“I was focusing on the hole I had just made. I put my head out from the box through the hole and at that point the soil was getting in.”

She told the jury she was exhausted and said to herself “My God, tell me what now?”

She shouted for help. “I thought it won’t be easy but I have to get out.

“I have to get to the street. I was very angry, I was struggling with the box, it was not easy.

“I managed to get half of my body out. I was lying on the ground. I was talking to myself, keep going.”

Miss Lewandowska said she could hear music from a pub nearby and as she finally stumbled down to the road she managed to stop a passing motorist who took her to his home and raised the alarm.

Kasprazak, 26 of Penistone Road, Huddersfield, and Borys, 18, of Rashcliffe Hill Road, Huddersfield, both deny attempting to murder Miss Lewandowska on May 28.

The prosecution claim Kasprazak had become bored with his partner and decided to get rid of her but wanted to keep their young son at the home they shared with his parents.

That day after Borys arrived Kasprazak suddenly grabbed her and forced her to the floor and she felt a sensation of being “kicked” as the Taser was put to her neck.

“I was trying to push him away. He managed to turn me over onto my side, my right side. He knelt down, he pressed my ribs with his knee and continued to use the Taser.”

She feared she was going to lose consciousness and believed the attack lasted five to 10 minutes before he told her everything would be all right.

She said Borys then helped him bind her legs and the tape was also put on her wrists and mouth.

Kasprazak then told her he hated her. “I remember his face. He was furious. He knelt down when I was sitting tied up against the doorway. He said he had hated me for four years.”

At one stage during her ordeal he did take her to the toilet, gave her some food and loosened the tape on her wrists when her hands began to turn blue. But then he got the cardboard box and placed her inside. “He said to me to lie down as he needed to close it and stick the box up.”

After the car journey she could hear digging and then the sound of soil being put on top of the box.

The trial continues.