Jury in cardboard coffin case sent home

The seven-man, five-woman jury was sent home last night after just over an hour’s deliberation following the end of the judge’s summing up of the evidence.

Marcin Kasprazak, 26 of Penistone Road, Huddersfield and Patryk Borys, 18 of Rashcliffe Hill Road, Huddersfield both deny attempting to murder Michelina Lewandowska on May 28. They have admitted kidnapping her.

The prosecution claims Kasprazak had become bored with his partner, the mother of his three-year-old child and decided to get rid of her by killing her.

After attacking her with a Taser she was bound and gagged with parcel tape and later put in the cardboard box which he and Borys carried to his car.

They then drove to woodland off Woodside Road, Huddersfield where the box was buried in a “shallow grave” in a natural dip, Jonathan Sharp prosecuting told the jury.

But after they left Miss Lewandowska, 27, used her engagement ring to cut some of the tape and managed to escape from the box and flag down a passing motorist.

She told the jury she believed she was going to be killed and had been very frightened.

Kasprazak and Borys, having used Miss Lewandowska’s bank cards to withdraw £500, were subsequently arrested at Borys’s home.

Borys did not give evidence. Kasprazak told the jury he considered the relationship with Miss Lewandowska as over and wanted her to leave but for their son to remain with him.

He said he “lost it” that afternoon and used the Taser on her because he was angry with what had been happening between them, particularly her treatment of their son.

He told the jury he never intended to kill her only to scare her when he took her in the box to the woodland.

Kasprazak said she could breathe in the box and he had had only lightly covered it with some soil and leaves and was not surprised when he was told she had got out. He said he had intended to go back and release her himself.