Sebastian Kalinowski: Mother tells court she should have died instead

A mother accused of murdering her teenage son told a jury she "should have died instead of him".

Sebastian Kalinowski, 15, died in August at his Huddersfield home from an infection caused by untreated rib fractures, Leeds Crown Court has heard.

Agnieszka Kalinowska and her partner Andrzej Latoszewski are charged with murdering Sebastian in what prosecutors claim was a campaign of "torture".

The couple deny murder but have admitted charges of child cruelty.

Mr Latoszewski, 36, has previously admitted manslaughter.

Ms Kalinowska, 36, told the court she admitted being cruel to Sebastian, but had not pleaded guilty to manslaughter because she did not cause any of his rib injuries, nor did she help or want Mr Latoszewski to break her son's ribs.

Asked by her barrister Leonard Smith QC why she watched her partner "inflict the most savage beatings on your own son" without intervening, she replied: "Because I was petrified and scared."

She described Sebastian as a "good child" and said Mr Latoszewski's claims to his school that he was "naughty and lying" were not true.

"He was just an ordinary teenager. I failed as a mother. I should have died instead of him," she said.

Asked whose decision it was to start punishing Sebastian, she said: "Andrzej's, because he was the head of the house and he was deciding everything."

The court was shown one CCTV clip of Ms Kalinowska kicking out at Sebastian as her partner beat him.

She said: "Andrzej told me to do something. He said I was just standing there and as his mother I should have intervened."

Ms Kalinowska admitted calling Sebastian "foul and disgusting names", saying it was "because I was used to those words, because those were the words Andrzej used to address me, so that type of language was being used in the house."

Asked about a recording of her shouting at Sebastian, she said Mr Latoszewski had installed an app to "record every single conversation on my phone" and she "wanted Andrzej to know I was disciplining Sebastian in the way he expected me to do".

Mr Smith asked: "Did you ever think, this has gone too far, I have to save my child?"

She replied, "No."

The trial continues.

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