Sebastian Kalinowski: The harrowing home CCTV which helped convict child killers

Sebastian Kalinowski arrived in the UK in October 2020 in the hope of starting a new life - within a year he was dead, murdered by his mother and her partner. His family home was covered with CCTV cameras monitoring what was happening inside the house. It was these cameras which led to the downfall of the killer couple.

On 13 August 2021 Sebastian Kalinowski lay naked and lifeless on his bedroom floor.

Aged just 15, he had endured months of horrific abuse at the hands of his mother, Agnieszka Kalinowska, and her bodybuilder boyfriend, Andrzej Latoszewski.

Later that same day he was pronounced dead at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary from sepsis brought on by multiple fractures to his ribs.

But, before he reached hospital, before even an ambulance was called, Latoszewski's priority was not the teenage boy. Instead he was busy trying to remove the CCTV cameras he had installed in the house - CCTV cameras which had captured every beating Sebastian had suffered.

Warning: This article contains details which some people may find distressing

During the course of the six-week trial the jury watched hour after hour of the footage recorded inside the family's home at 301 Leeds Road, Huddersfield.

They watched on in horror as clip after clip, recorded over several months, was broadcast on TV screens inside Court Four at Leeds Crown Court.

After they found Kalinowska and Latoszewski guilty, judge Mrs Justice Lambert told them they would never have to serve on a jury again after what they had been forced to see and hear.

In one 30-minute recording Latoszewski could be seen hitting Sebastian more than 100 times - kicking, punching and kneeing the boy. At one point, he grabbed the boy's wrists to stop him being able to protect himself.

While the beating took place his mother could be seeing eating toast in front of the TV, seemingly oblivious to the violence being inflicted on her son.

In other videos, he is being whipped with an electric cable, beaten with a bed slat and stabbed in the groin with a needle.

The court heard that as well as beatings Latoszewski also doled out cruel punishments to Sebastian, which became more and more violent.

Prosecutor Jason Pitter QC said it appeared these punishments were "precipitated by things such as Sebastian merely dropping food on his bedroom floor, or even just having gone to the toilet during the night".

One so-called "punishment" was to stare at the wall in his room, others involved forcing him to undertake physical and humiliating drills.

In one clip, after Sebastian struggled to complete a set of push-ups he had been ordered to do, Latoszewski can be seen mocking the teenager before launching yet another violent attack.

But, it was not just Latoszewski who was caught physically attacking Sebastian.

The pair, who continued to profess their love for each other while on remand, both dished out beatings and then discussed them over texts - describing some attacks as "torture".

On the day he died his mother was filmed throwing him to the floor after he had struggled to get back to his feet because of his injuries.

It was these recordings recovered from the house that played a key role in convicting the couple, lawyers said.

Daniel Lee, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), described the footage as "something you'll never forget".

"It's so unusual to have, first of all, CCTV cameras inside a house, and secondly, that CCTV showing a young boy being tortured and subjected to a catalogue of physical and mental abuse, ill treatment and neglect" he said.

"That footage is harrowing and you can't really prepare for it.

"The emotional distress watching a defenceless 15-year-old boy being tortured to death is something that once you see, you'll probably never forget.

"It's not something I've ever come across before whereby the ultimate downfall of somebody's crimes have been captured on footage."

But why was the house rigged with so many cameras?

Asked in court Latoszewski claimed it was for protection, saying he had been the victim of a burglary at a previous address.

Prosecutors, however, said the cameras were there to "monitor and exert control over Sebastian" - in a chilling similarity to the case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, who was killed by his abusive father and his partner.

Mr Pitter told jurors Sebastian would sometimes be left out of family gatherings as a punishment and forced to sit in his bedroom facing the wall, with Latoszewski using the cameras to check in on him.

Yet, while the months of abuse were recorded in detail inside the four walls of the family home, from the outside it went almost unnoticed.

Neighbours said they rarely saw the trio, only catching a glimpse of Sebastian as he made the daily mile-long walk to school or spotting fitness fanatic Latoszewski working out in his back garden gym.

"They kept themselves to themselves," said Michael Brown, whose home overlooks the family's back garden

He said Sebastian was a "very quiet" boy but smiled whenever they saw him.

During the trial, one of his teachers at North Huddersfield Trust School said she had become concerned about Sebastian after a verbal altercation with Latoszewski at the school gates around Easter 2021.

She said Latoszewski had called Sebastian "lazy" and "a liar" but when she asked the boy about it he said he was fine.

She told the court: "If there had been bruises, I could have reported it or if [Sebastian] had said something, I could have reported it.

"Without anything like that it was just my impressions and feelings."

Latoszewski and Kalinowska also carefully monitored Sebastian's movements outside of school and if he had bruises he would be kept at home under the guise of him being poorly. Covid-19 restrictions also meant his time at school was limited.

During the summer holidays Latoszewski's violence increased, only ending on 13 August when, as Sebastian lay unconscious on the floor, he eventually called the emergency services.

For neighbour Mr Brown the realisation of what had happened just a stone's throw from his own home left him feeling "mind-tinglingly numb".

"Just to understand that something so horrible was happening to someone so small not just 50 yards from our house, in something that was meant to be a sanctuary of safety, it's horrific."

Fellow neighbour Sylwia Szreder said she had been moved to tears by news of Sebastian's death.

"I started crying because I saw him all the time, walking alone to school. It was tragic."

Despite being seen as a quiet, unassuming boy by some, head teacher Andrew Fell said he had watched Sebastian grow into a model pupil during his short time at the school.

"He had a lovely smile. He was very quiet, quite shy - but as his English developed, so did his confidence.

"Everyone who speaks of him, speaks of how lovely he was. He had a wicked sense of humour.

"He just wanted to embrace everything and make the most of his time in school and his time in another country."

In just a few days, Sebastian would have been finishing his final year at senior school. His GCSEs done, a long summer ahead of him, he should have been contemplating how best to spend his holidays, his whole adult life ahead of him.

Instead, his mother and her partner are contemplating beginning their life sentences for his murder.

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