A former Fife College IT technician who murdered his son to get revenge against his former partner for ending their relationship has been jailed for life.
Evil Lukasz Czapla, 41, shot, stabbed and smothered two-year-old Julius at his home in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, in November 2020 to get back at Patrycja Szczesniak.
Czapla had admitted killing little Julius but claimed he was of diminished responsibility at the time.
The 41-year-old had sent text messages to his former partner – two-year-old Julius’ mother – warning he was going to harm the boy.
He said he was going to take his own life and did not want Julius to find his body – as he had found his own father’s at their home in Poland.
He then shot his son repeatedly in the head with an air pistol, stabbed him repeatedly with a skewer and smothered him with a pillow.
An offer to plead guilty to culpable homicide was rejected and Czapla will now serve a life sentence after a jury found him guilty of murder following a ten-day trial.
Judge Lord Beckett told him at the High Court in Edinburgh he will serve at least 23 years of the 30-year life term.
He will be released once the parole board consider he no longer poses a threat to public safety.
Mother’s heartbreak
Patrycja released a statement through Police Scotland.
She said: “I only wanted the best for you.
“If only I could only turn back time to have you in my arms again my child.
“Despite the breakup with Juliusz’s dad, I wanted him to have contact with our son.
“I never stopped him seeing Juliusz.
“Julek loved him like every child loves their dad. He trusted him, he trusted him completely.
“Juliusz was murdered only for revenge.
“His dad wanted me to suffer, he succeeded and achieved his goal, at the cost of my beloved little boy’s life.
“If only I knew what was going to happen.
“I would have never thought he could do this to my child.”
Night of the killing
The high court heard how Patrycja had split from Czapla in June 2020 but was happy to allow him look after defenceless Julius.
However, on the night of November 20 2020, she told Czapla that she was seeing somebody else in a text message.
This prompted him to send her a series of bizarre texts asking her about her new partner and her sex life.
Patrycja refused to respond to the messages.
Callous Czapla, who had spent the evening drinking beer, then downed anti- depressants with wine and killed Julius.
Patrycja discovered her son’s body the following day, after rushing to the flat when she saw the messages.
Czapla, who kept quantities of mind-bending LSD at the house at the same time he was looking after Julius, then left the property.
The brute drove away, committing road traffic offences as he tried to flee.
On Wednesday, jurors took three hours to conclude Czapla was guilty of murder.
‘No excuse’ for murder
Czapla sat in the dock wearing a surgical mask, between two security officers, with his head bowed as the judge delivered his sentence.
Lord Beckett said: “Your son will never grow up and his loving mother has lost him forever and will forever be haunted by the truly evil act that you did.
“You acted out of spite to punish his mother for leaving you and getting on with her life.
“Suffice to say, you showed considerable determination to ensure that a defenceless child would die in considerable distress.
“It is no excuse that you were full of drink and drugs indeed it is significantly aggravated given that you were being asked to look after a two-year-old.”
Counselling offer for jury
Lord Beckett thanked jurors for their service and excused them from serving on a jury for 10 years.
He also offered jurors who may have been traumatised by the evidence the opportunity of receiving counselling.
Lord Beckett added: “Those of us who work in these courts and the people in this trial who have been working in these courts for many years are familiar with some of the most awful aspects of human behaviour.
“But even with the considerable experience around the table in this case, I suspect this case perhaps exceeds the awfulness of so many other cases that we hear.
“Judges and lawyers are somewhat hardened to this.
“We learn to compartmentalise our feelings about these things – we are human too.
“There can be nothing in your lives that could have prepared for this experience and I don’t doubt that it perhaps has taken quite the toll on you listening to such dreadful occurrences such terrible violence inflicted on a young and defenceless child for no good reasons and for really bad reasons, it seems.”
Police response
Detective Inspector Bob Williamson, of Police Scotland’s Major Investigation Team, said: “Julius was a bright, happy young boy and his loss in such horrendous circumstances has been devastating for his mother and his family.
“Lukasz Czapla is now facing the consequences of his actions.
“The outcome of this case will never bring Julius back but it does bring this aspect to a close.”
