Two deny murder attempt in ‘buried alive’ case

Terrified Michelina Lewandowska was driven into the countryside where she was entombed in a shallow grave with a large branch placed over the top of the box.

But Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday that “against all the odds” Miss Lewandowska managed to escape and raise the alarm by flagging down a passing car.

Her partner, Marcin Kasprazak, and another Polish man, Patryk Borys, were then both arrested.

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

Mr Sharp told the jury: “In a nutshell, this case is about a young man who got bored with his partner, the mother of his child, and he decided to get rid of her.”

Initially their relationship had been good but he said following the birth of their son and moving to live with his parents things changed.

She returned to work and the couple began to see little of each other, leading almost separate lives.

“Any affection they had had was replaced for Marcin by hate.”

Mr Sharp said he told his partner she was not as good looking as other girls he saw at the gym. He would stay out sometimes all night and was thinking of starting a relationship with the sister of Borys’s girlfriend.

He changed his Facebook status to single and told friends on the social networking site his relationship was over. Mr Sharp claimed he had decided to get his partner out of the way and the idea developed that the only way was to kill her.

He recruited Borys to help and after arranging for his parents and child to be out they attacked Miss Lewandowska with a prohibited 300,000-volt Taser.

“It is right to say the stun gun did not have the effect it was advertised because Michelina was not paralysed,” he said.

But after they had bound her wrists and ankles and gagged her with brown parcel tape, the terrified woman agreed to do whatever he wanted and to leave their son with him and his mother.

Mr Sharp said there was then a lull in the violence and Kasprazak even gave her something to eat but the mood later changed and her gag was tightened again.

She was “persuaded” to get into the cardboard box previously holding a computer and it was taped up securely.

Two grab holes on the side allowed air in as the pair carried the box to Kasprazak’s car which was then driven a short distance to Woodside Road.

He told the jury they then carried the box into woodland with her sealed inside, to a natural dip not visible from the road, where they dug a hole big enough to take the box.

After piling earth around the box and on top with leaves they placed a branch weighing 40kg or 6 stone 4lb across the top before leaving.

Miss Lewandowska was aware of what was happening but had not uttered a sound, as far as her attackers knew she could have been unconscious, he said. “So far as they knew in that state, they simply left her there.”

Mr Sharp said the pair then used her bank cards at a local supermarket to withdraw £500.

Fortunately he said the complainant was not unconscious “she was, although with great difficulty, able to get herself out of the box and the earth covering and surrounding it”.

She managed to get to the road and flag down a passing car.

Mr Sharp told the jury Kasprazak and Borys apparently now accepted they were involved in the attack but the issue would be whether their intention was to kill or, as they might claim, simply intend to scare her.

The trial continues.