Murder accused ‘could not remember’ if he killed housemate

Arkadiusz Kaczmarek, 22, is on trial at Chester Crown Court accused of the murder of his housemate Slawomir Kulesza at Blakemere Court, Ellesmere Port, on or just after May 1 this year.

He denies murder.

Earlier in the trial, Kaczmarek said he “did not know” and could not remember if he killed his housemate.

After police spotted Kaczmarek on Westminster Bridge at 3am on May 2, they were concerned for his welfare and saw his clothing was blood-stained.

They gave him a lift back to Blakemere Court and, shortly after entering the house, a police officer discovered the body of Mr Kulesza in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, with a smashed glass cabinet on his leg.

A post-mortem examination showed Mr Kulesza had been stabbed 10 times in the chest, arm and head, with injuries to the brain, heart and additional slash wounds on the hands.

Giving evidence on Monday afternoon to defence barrister Gordon Cole QC, Kaczmarek said he had got out of bed on May 1 at 9pm and Mr Kulesza had offered to buy a bottle of vodka from him.

Kaczmarek refused, saying instead they could split a bottle of vodka and drink together. He added he did not want to drink on an empty stomach so made a meal of chicken and pasta with a sauce.

They then drank the bottle of vodka between them, before going to a local shop to purchase a bottle of Smirnoff vodka.

On numerous occasions, during cross-examination on Tuesday by John Benson QC, Kaczmarek - through a Polish interpreter - said he “did not know” or remember anything after going to the Westminster convenience store on Westminster Road at 10.47pm that night, until being at the police custody suite in Blacon several hours later.

He accepted, however, that the man seen on CCTV evidence locating his whereabouts from 1.05pm to 3pm was him.

Kaczmarek was seen on CCTV with a knife that was deposited by the Conservative Club at 1.10am.

The Denby kitchen knife was blood-stained, with DNA matching that of Mr Kulesza, and was recovered by a member of the public on May 3.

CCTV footage also captured Kaczmarek going into, then falling asleep, in the garden of a Worcester Walk home at 1.30am, which again Kaczmarek said he did not remember.

He also did not remember speaking to police at Westminster Bridge when they found him at 3am.

At the end of the cross-examination, having been shown bodycam footage of police seeing Mr Kulesza’s body, Kaczmarek became visibly upset and went down to the cells from the dock, with the trial adjourned for a short break for Kaczmarek to compose himself.

The court also heard from consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Edward Silva, who established that people who drink could have ‘alcoholic blackouts’, which could cause fragmented or blocks of memory loss which could last up to several hours.

Said person could also carry out “elaborate activity” during that time.

Mr Benson questioned whether said elaborate activity could stretch to someone picking up a knife and stabbing someone 10 times, before then leaving a house while still carrying the knife, to drop it elsewhere.

The jury had earlier heard evidence there had been no arguments or aggression between the two housemates from when Kaczmarek arrived at the house in late January, up until Mr Kulesza’s death in May.

A friend of Kaczmarek gave a statement saying there “never seemed to be any problems” between the two housemates.

Kaczmarek had initially denied a second charge of possessing a bladed article in public.

Having since seen the CCTV evidence of him out with the blood-stained kitchen knife, Kaczmarek has accepted the man in the footage is him.

In the summing up on Thursday, October 29, Honorary Recorder of Chester Judge Steven Everett said the jury would be asked to deliberate whether Kaczmarek was guilty or not of murder, or an alternative charge of manslaughter.

The judge also directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict for Kaczmarek in the charge of possessing a bladed article.