Sebastian Kalinowski: Jury retires in trial of Huddersfield couple accused of teen's murder

A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case of a mother and her partner who are accused of murdering her teenage son.

Sebastian Kalinowski, 15, died from complications caused by multiple untreated rib fractures at his home in Leeds Road, Huddersfield, on 13 August last year.

He had endured months of assaults at the hands of his mother, Agnieszka Kalinowska, 36, and her partner, Andrzej Latoszewski, 36.

Latoszewski has admitted manslaughter but denies murder. Kalinowska has admitted child cruelty, but denies murder.

During evidence lasting almost five weeks, the jury was shown extensive footage from CCTV installed in the couple's house – the prosecution say to monitor Sebastian.

The videos showed numerous incidents in which Sebastian was repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on.

He was also beaten with a bed slat and a spindle from a staircase and whipped with a cable.

Opening the prosecution's case, Jason Pitter QC said the treatment amounted to "torture".

In his closing speech, Mr Pitter said that Latoszewski – a martial artist and steroid user – may have been the "main protagonist" in Sebastian's abuse, but it was "enouraged, brought about by and supported" by Kalinowska.

The couple said he was being punished for alleged misbehaviour, including playing truant from school and lying.

But the court has heard how staff at North Huddersfield Trust School described him as a "model student".

In his closing speech, defence barrister Nicholas Lumley QC, for Latoszewski, admitted that what the jury had seen during the trial was "not normal."

He said: "The treatment of Sebastian is truly shocking and it should not happen in a civilised, or any, society. Sebastian, we can all surely agree, did not deserve to die and should not have died. We, his lawyers, do not condone cruelty to children, any crime, we do not seek to justify what is criminal."

But he said Latoszewski had not intended to kill Sebastian. He said: "If this defendant wanted to end Sebastian's life, then that could and would, have been the work of a moment for a man of his strength."

Leonard Smith, representing Kalinowska, said that "thankfully" there were very few cases of this nature dealt with by courts.

He said: "No matter how hardened we are to what happens in criminal courts up and down the country, this case really takes the biscuit."

But he said that there was a "distinction" between the violence carried out by the two defendants. Kalinowska's abuse of her son was "comparatively low".

"Her very occasional blows were much lighter, much less frequent, much less planned," he said.

He said she was controlled by Latoszewski, who he described as a "master of mental abuse" and "skilled at obnoxious mind games".

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