Grieving father sees son's killer jailed for life

Mariusz Rogowicz was walking home from an evening with friends when he met a fellow Pole, Dawid Grabowski, in Harehills Road, Leeds, on April 15 last year.

Grabowski, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and often described himself as a Staffordshire terrier, attacked Mr Rogowicz, repeatedly kicking and stamping on his head as he lay on the ground.

Mr Rogowicz, 24, who had been hoping to build a better life for himself working in Yorkshire, later died from his injuries.

His father Jan Rogowicz, who travelled from Poland for the trial, heard a jury at Leeds Crown Court unanimously convict Grabowski of murdering his son.

The killer was ordered to serve a minimum of 10 years minus the time spent in custody but was warned he would only be released when he was considered no longer dangerous.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Rogowicz said his son had hoped to make enough money to return home and open his own business.

He said: "He loved his family. He told us he would return back to Poland in June and he did come back – but in a coffin.

"As we know he was brutally murdered by a person with a mental disability. To me, this person is a beast."

"I can only thank the police officers for arresting the beast, and the justice system for sending him to prison, because if it was not for the good work of the police he would have fled and escaped justice and could have murdered someone else."

Mr Rogowicz added he was taking some gravel from the place where his son was attacked back to Mariusz's mother and two brothers as a memento.

The jury cleared Grabowski's mother Barbara Wisniewska, 44, of Ashley Road, Harehills, Leeds, of assisting an offender by allegedly disposing of her son's bloodstained trainers.

She screamed and clung to her son in the dock when he was convicted.

After the verdicts Richard Mansell QC, prosecuting, said Grabowski, now 26, had faced trial in November last year but was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and spent some time in Rampton Hospital before he was considered fit enough to stand trial.

While in the hospital he spoke of both his victim and himself as dogs. He said sometimes he felt as though another spirit was taking control of him and when the dog was taking over would shout "stop it."

During the trial a statement was read from Grabowski's sister Zaklin Wisniewska, describing how he had returned to the family home, then in Karnac Road, Harehills, with blood on his trainers.

He was "laughing, jumping up and down in joy" and was boasting about beating another man up. She said he described seeing the man in the street and thinking both of them were dogs and were about to "go sparring".

"Sentencing him, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said it was clear from medical reports at the time of the attack he was suffering from a mental disorder and that had he admitted soon after the killing the Crown would have accepted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

But instead he had now been convicted of murder for which life imprisonment was the only sentence.

The minimum term was, however, reduced because of his mental disorder lowering his culpability.

He said on the night of April 15, "You attacked what must have been the first person you came across."

The judge added: "It is clear that at the present time you are a very dangerous person and while you remain dangerous will not be released."

He expressed sympathy to the family of Mr Rogowicz and commended the police team, which included Polish officers.

After the case Det Supt Paul Taylor said police in both countries had worked together to ensure justice was done, the critical breakthrough, throwing up Grabowski's name, emerging after publicity in Poland.

He added: "Mariusz died as a result of a senseless and completely random act of extreme violence and I hope that today's verdict will bring some closure to his family and in particular his father Jan who has been here for each day of the trial and has acted with the upmost dignity throughout what has been an extremely difficult time."