Early on a Sunday morning, a dog walker made his way through a local beauty spot. With a picturesque lake, a play area and plenty of ducks to feed, Clowes Park is popular with families, an oasis of calm away from a busy area of Salford.
But on that cool morning, he made a discovery which would transform a leafy retreat into the centre of a murder investigation. The body of a teenage boy was found.
He'd been brutally killed, stabbed 20 times. Around the same time the appalling discovery was made, at 7.30am on January 30 last year, Alan Szelugowski's family reported the 17-year-old missing.
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Alan had lots of friends and was well liked. He was studying at college, and lived at home with his mother and her partner.
One of his closest pals was Maciej Mikolajczyk. Then also 17, Mikolajczyk was born in Poland and came to live in the UK about a decade earlier.
He worked as a receptionist at a branch of the Premier Inn hotel chain on Deansgate Locks. Mikolajczyk been to different schools than Alan, but the pair met through mutual friends and bonded over video games, football and smoking cannabis.
They would visit each other's homes and meet up regularly. But the pair would later become embroiled in a bitter feud, which would ultimately end with Mikolajczyk in the dock accused of Alan's murder.
Drugs, as is so often the case in murder trials, were the catalyst for this tragic killing. Despite his tender age, Mikolajczyk admitted he was dealing.
He said he'd sold Alan some cannabis, but that Alan hadn't paid him back for it. In the days before the murder, a feud intensified. Alan branded Mikolajczyk a 'snake' in a text message.
He lambasted Mikolajczyk after he'd allowed another dealer the use of his phone, to challenge Alan about a further unpaid cannabis debt. Members of Alan's family overheard phone calls where the pair were rowing with each other.
The day before the killing, the pair had made tentative arrangements to meet up and resolve their dispute. But it was the following day when the fatal showdown was to take place.
Mikolajczyk, who was working at the city centre hotel, traded threats with Alan throughout the day. "Dont be tryin no fun," Alan warned Mikolajczyk in one text.
At about 5.30pm, Alan left his home and walked to Clowes Park. The light was fading and it was almost pitch black by the time Mikolajczyk arrived.
But he was not alone. He had cycled home from work and was later picked up by two friends in a car, which had been stolen days earlier. Lilner Neto attended the same secondary school as Alan.
Then 16, Neto, who was studying engineering at Bury College, was a talented amateur footballer who had once played for Rochdale's academy but suffered an injury which put paid to his ambitions of turning professional. He would meet up with Alan once a week, and during the Covid lockdown the pair would go on bike rides and play football together.
Also in the car was Benson Jones, a friend of Neto. Exactly what happened in that park in the next 10 minutes will perhaps never be known.
"I tried to ask him when he would be able to pay the money, and why was he calling me a snake," Mikolajczyk said at his trial. In the following moments, Alan, described as a 'small in stature' at just 5ft 1ins, was stabbed 20 times.
During a ferocious attack, he was knifed to his head, body, arms and legs. Mikolajczyk admitted stabbing Alan 'two or three times max', and claimed that Alan had reached into his jacket as if he was about to arm himself.
Mortally wounded, Alan was left for dead. Some of his injuries indicated he had fought for his life as his attacker stabbed him.
But, by taking his mobile phone his killers had ensured he was unable to call for help or be traced using location tracking services. It was only the following morning, more than 12 hours later, when he was discovered by a dog walker.
Police raided Mikolajczyk's home the next day. A pair of Nike trainers containing Alan's blood was seized.
As the investigation continued, months later trainers containing Alan's blood were seized from Jones' house. In the aftermath of the killing, Neto texted a friend and said 'this could be my life ending' and that he 'could get time'.
At a sentencing on Monday parts of a victim impact statement written by Alan's mum Anna Szelugowska, were read out in court. She said her son would 'do anything to avoid conflict' and described him walking two miles to the shop to avoid local gangs.
His murder was the 'biggest shock', Ms Szelugowska said. She added: "The day it happened was awful. I relive it all the time.
"Since that day our lives have never, and will never, be the same again. There are no words to describe how I feel.
"I walk down the street and see other teenage boys living their lives and become angry. The only reason I am still here is for my other two sons. Without them I think I would have ended my life."
Ms Szelugowska said she had 'only hatred' for her son's killers. "I will never forgive them," she added.
Now, the trio have faced justice after Mikolajczyk was found guilty of murder, and Neto and Jones were convicted of manslaughter.
Judge John Potter said the three defendants took part in 'horrific violence for, it seems, little or no reason'. Alan, 'stood little chance', after being 'set upon and left to bleed to death', the judge said.
He added: "The three of you set upon Alan in the dark in that park and stabbed, kicked and punched him. You Maciej Mikolajczyk used at least one knife to inflict injury.
"After the attack the three of you abandoned your victim in the park, raising no alarm as to what you had done and ensuring that there was no prospect of any alarm being raised you took his mobile phone and disposed of it, as you also did with the knife you had used."
Speaking after the sentencing Det Chief Insp Gareth Davies, of GMP's Major Incident Team, said: "Our thoughts remain with Alan's loved ones, who are understandably devastated. We hope today’s result gives them a sense of closure.
"This was a really violent attack – Alan was found with more than 20 injuries, five of which would have killed him. There is no doubt that this issue could have been resolved without weapons.
"These boys will now spend 36 years and several key milestones behind bars – I really hope this sentence makes those who carry knives think twice before they leave the house."
In another case evidencing Greater Manchester's teen knife crime epidemic, another young life was needlessly cut short following a petty, trivial dispute. The killing leaves in its wake a trail of devastation, nowhere more keenly felt than with Alan's family.
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