Boyfriend and secret lover ‘in murder plot to claim insurance’

Rafal Nowak is said to have killed 23-year-old business analyst Catherine Wells-Burr as she slept at the couple’s new home in Chard, Somerset, in September last year, leaving him able to access a six-figure life insurance payout and the property.

Anna Lagwinowicz, with whom Nowak is said to have rekindled a romance, joined her uncle, Tadevsz Dmytryszyn, 38, in dumping Miss Wells-Burr’s body in her car at a roadside and setting fire to it, Bristol Crown Court heard.

The murder was the result of months of secret meetings and phone calls between Nowak, 31, and Lagwinowicz, the prosecution said.

Jurors heard Lagwinowicz embarked on several plots to “trap” her love rival, creating fake profiles on social media from fictional male admirers and even signing up to an explicit dating website pretending to be Miss Wells-Burr.

The trio also created a fake trail of text messages with a “mystery man”, implying Miss Wells-Burr was having an affair with an unidentified man who was responsible for her death.

But police quickly identified clues pointing to Nowak, the “bitter” and “jealous” Lagwinowicz and her doting uncle.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Richard Smith QC told the jury Miss Wells-Burr thought that, in Nowak, “she had a caring partner to share the new house with, to share potentially that bright future with”. He added: “How very sadly wrong she was.”

Polish nationals Nowak, Lagwinowicz, and Dmytryszyn deny murder.

Mr Smith told the jury the three had set out on a course of “heartless, careful planning”, murdering Miss Wells-Burr on Wednesday September 12.

Mr Smith said Lagwinowicz had been “simmering with discontent” after a court order prevented her and Nowak from seeing each other after he had assaulted her, but they kept in contact.

The trial is expected to last for up to eight weeks.