Sebastian Kalinowski: Couple discussed marriage while awaiting trial for teen's murder

A woman and her partner discussed getting married in letters exchanged from their prison cells as they awaited trial for her son's murder.

Leeds Crown Court heard on Thursday, 7 July, how Agnieska Kalinowska and Andrzej Latoszewski wrote to one another after being charged with the murder of 15-year-old Sebastian Kalinowski.

The jury has heard how the couple repeatedly assaulted the teenager at their home in Leeds Road, Huddersfield over the course of several weeks.

Many of the attacks were caught on CCTV installed by the couple in their own home.

Sebastian died from complications caused by untreated rib fractures on 13 August last year.

Taking the stand for a second day in her defence, Kalinowska, 35, told the court that she took part in assaulting Sebastian because she was "afraid" of Latoszewski, 36, and took her lead from him. She said she had been the victim of his assaults for a number of years.

'Yes, yes, yes, yes'

But under questioning from Latoszewski's defence barrister, Nicholas Lumley QC, she admitted that she wrote letters to Latoszewski while they were in separate prisons awaiting trial.

At least one had love hearts on the envelope.

Referencing one letter, believed to have been written last September, Mr Lumley said: "In this letter, did you accept a proposal of marriage from Andrzej?"

Kalinowska replied: "Yes."

The barrister asked: "Did you say, 'My answer is 'yes, yes, yes, yes'?... With no hesitation, anywhere, any time, even in a tracksuit, I don't need a wedding dress."

Kalinowska confirmed the details were correct.

Mr Lumley said: "If you were telling the truth yesterday and today, why were you accepting this monster's marriage proposal?"

Kalinowska said she was "broken at that time" and "had to think over everything". She added: "I don't want to know him."

The prosecution say the defendants were guilty of "torture" after inflicting multiple injuries on Sebastian.

Footage shown to the jury shows him being repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on. He was beaten with a bed slat, whipped with an extension cable and forced to perform "humiliating" exercise drills.

Latoszewski has admitted manslaughter. Kalinowska has pleaded guilty to child cruelty. Both deny murder.

On Wednesday, Kalinowska said she was "petrified and scared" of Latoszewski and said she had "failed as a mother".

On Thursday she was shown footage of an assault in which Sebastian was whipped by Latoszewski and she appeared to be crying.

She said: "I was really broken seeing what was happening to Sebastian."

'He was a good boy'

But the footage showed her then kicking Sebastian in the back.

Asked why she did so Kalinowska said: "Because Andrzej told me to do it, and I did what he was always telling me to do. Because I was afraid."

She later said: "My heart is broken now and I think about Sebastian it makes me cry, every single day, every single evening. I do love him. He was a good boy."

Mr Lumley put it to Kalinowska that there was no evidence of Latoszewski being violent towards her, and that she was trying to protect herself.

She said: "No. I'm telling the truth. That time that there were lies, but now it is the truth."

At the time of his death, Sebastian had been in the UK for less than a year after moving from Poland to live with his mother and her partner.

He attended North Huddersfield Trust School, where he was described as a "model student". But Latoszewski has said he was "punished" for lying and playing truant from school.

Kalinowska denied those claims. She told the court: "I'm not going to put any bad word against [Sebastian]. I don't know how Andrezj could express some bad things or comments about him. [Sebastian] should be here with me, not in a grave in a cemetery."

The trial continues.