A woman and her partner have been jailed for life in Leeds over the murder of her 15-year-old son Sebastian Kalinowski.
Agnieszka Kalinowska and 36-year-old Andrzej Latoszewski were sentenced to a minimum term of 39 years each for killing the teenager after subjecting him to a campaign of “torture”.
The teenager had moved to the UK from Poland to live with Kalinowska, 35, and her long-term partner in October 2020, less than a year before his death, Leeds Crown Court heard.
He died last August of an infection caused by “untreated complications of multiple rib fractures”, which the court was told came after weeks of “cruel assaults and abuse”.
The 15-year-old was beaten with a bed slat, whipped with an extension cable and stabbed with a needle, jurors were told during the trial in June.
Sebastian was described by teachers as “a pleasant and well-mannered boy” who “was observed to be quiet and timid, and at times appeared sad”.
After the couple’s arrest, West Yorkshire Police seized CCTV cameras from their home in Huddersfield believed to have been installed partly to “monitor and exert control over Sebastian remotely”.
“In a twist, it is that system that has recorded the abuse he had to endure,” prosecutor Jason Pitter QC told the court.
Sebastian’s father, Jacek Kalinowski, watched proceedings by video link from Poland.
Sentencing the pair on Thursday, Ms Justice Lambert said: “You, Latoszewski, are a bully. Like all bullies, you sought to intimidate and frighten Sebastian, who was weaker than you. In Sebastian you found an easy prey.
“There were times when viewing the footage I was sure you had lost awareness of the fact that you were hitting a human being and not a punching bag.
“As for you, Kalinowska, the explanation is simple – you just didn’t care about Sebastian. You were only interested in yourself.”
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Kalinowski called Kalinowska “the greatest evil that walks this Earth”, saying: “In a cruel and heartless way you have taken the life of my son. You turned every day of Sebastian’s life into a nightmare.
“Why did you hate him to that degree when you allowed that psychopath to treat Sebastian like that, and then you readily participated in the whole thing. You inflicted so much pain and humiliation on him. You made my son a punchbag for yourself; you committed a terrifying act and you were merciless.
“I made many mistakes as a parent. Perhaps I was not able to be a perfect father, but I loved Sebastian. However, I could not protect him from evil, evil which was inflicted on him by his own mother.”
Speaking in defence of Latoszewski, barrister Geraldine Kelly said: “However unreasonable it seems, and distorted a way of thinking, there is evidence to suggest what motivated this appalling conduct was them seeking to discipline [Sebastian].”
The prosecution said that by New Year’s Eve the defendants’ attitude was that Sebastian was “something of a hindrance” and that, from January 2021, “the disciplining of [him] became progressively harsh”.
His “punishments” were “by any stretch of the imagination cruel and became increasingly more severe and violent over time”, the court heard.
Mrs Justice Lambert was broadcast handing down her sentence – the third time cameras have been allowed into an English criminal crown court to record a sentencing.
On the day before Sebastian’s death, Latoszewski was seen on CCTV forcing food and drink into the teenager’s mouth and stabbing him a number of times with a needle in the groin and thigh.
Latoszewski was “apparently laughing whilst he did so”, and Kalinowska at one point “took over stabbing Sebastian with the needle”, prosecutors said.
Jurors heard that, on the morning of 13 August, Sebastian’s final day, he went through “the routine of being assaulted by both defendants”, with jurors told that CCTV showed Latoszewski taking Sebastian out of the bedroom at 8.25am, before carrying him back around 15 minutes later, “naked, clearly wet and unconscious”.
Emergency services were called to the defendants’ house by Latoszewski after Sebastian had been unconscious for around two and a half hours, the prosecution said.
Additional reporting by PA
