Husband convicted of killing six in frenzied knife attack

Damian Rzeszowski armed himself with kitchen knives and stabbed his father-in-law Marek Gartska, 56, wife Izabela Rzeszowska, 30, daughter Kinga, five, and two-year-old son Kacper, at their Jersey home on August 14, last year.

The 31-year-old Polish builder also turned on his wife’s friend, Marta De La Haye, 34, and her five-year-old daughter Julia, who were at the house for a barbecue.

Rzeszowski was convicted of six counts of manslaughter following a trial at the Royal Court in St Helier, Jersey.

The court heard that Rzeszowski’s marriage had been under strain after his wife confessed to a two-month affair with another man and threatened to commit suicide.

Rzeszowski admitted the killings but his defence argued that he was suffering moderate to severe depression, causing an onset of psychotic symptoms which diminished his responsibility.

Wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, Rzeszowski showed no emotion as the presiding judge, Sir Michael Birt, read out the verdicts that two jurats – similar to magistrates – had reached.

Judge Birt, who is the Bailiff of Jersey, said Rzeszowski would be sentenced for manslaughter on October 29.

The prosecution had argued that Rzeszowski was guilty of murder after rejecting manslaughter pleas he entered in April.

During the trial, the court heard Rzeszowski lashed out as his marriage crumbled.

In June last year, his wife told him she had been involved in a affair and threatened to kill herself.

He had previously caught her flirting with other men online and she had confessed she no longer loved him. In turn, he retaliated with a one-night stand of his own which he told his wife about.

But after Rzeszowski took an overdose of pills on July 19, 2011, the couple agreed they would try to save their marriage.

The stabbings happened on the day the family returned to Jersey after a holiday in Poland which was intended to get their relationship back on track.

After the attacks, Rzeszowski told psychiatrists that, during the trip back from Poland, he began to hear voices coming from the car radio. The voices spoke in Polish, telling him he was a “bad man” and mentioning the names of his children.

He claimed that the voices increased, warning him that his wife and Marta were going to be raped and killed, and his children put on the barbecue.

He went out for a cigarette and the voices said “Kill, kill”, although he told a psychiatrist that he did not interpret them as a command.

Julian Gollop, for the defence, claimed that was the last Rzeszowski could remember until he woke up in a hospital bed after surgery for a collapsed lung.

But the prosecution argued that he had been exacting “extreme revenge” on his wife by killing her and everyone she loved.