Mother and stepfather jailed for Daniel Pelka murder
The mother and stepfather of four-year-old Daniel Pelka, who was starved and beaten, are jailed for life for his murder and will have to serve at least 30 years in prison.
Delivering her sentence at Birmingham crown court, Mrs Justice Cox said there had been “deeply shocking and disturbing” and “escalating and incomprehensible cruelty” towards Daniel.
She said his killers would serve a minimum term of 30 years in prison.
Magdelena Luczak, 27, and her partner, Mariusz Krezolek, 34 were described as heartless “monsters” during the nine-week trial at Birmingham crown court. They blamed each other for the child’s death.
Jurors, who had sat through evidence outlining six months of abuse against Daniel, took less than four hours to unanimously convict Luczak and former soldier Krezolek on Wednesday.
Evidence included details of Daniel’s final moments as he was first savagely beaten, leaving him with a fatal head injury, and then left to die alone in an unheated “cell” room over a period of 33 hours.
Force-fed salt
Daniel was denied food, imprisoned in a locked box room and force-fed salt at their Coventry home.
The pair, originally from Poland, also forced Daniel to perform arduous punishment exercises such as squats or running, while fooling teachers and doctors into believing his weight loss was a result of an eating disorder.
Police said the abuse had turned Daniel from a “beautiful and bright-eyed little boy into a broken bag of bones”.
At the time of death, he weighed just 1st 7lb and had been reduced to the point of “skeletal emaciation”.
Worst case of abuse
Detectives described it as the worst case of child abuse they had ever seen.
A serious case review looking at what lessons can be learned has been launched by Coventry’s Safeguarding Children Board.
The board is expected to examine why social services and the police did not become involved after staff at Coventry’s Little Heath primary school noticed bruising on Daniel’s neck and what appeared to be two black eyes.
His murder has echoes of the 2007 death of 17-month-old Baby Peter in London.