Sebastian Kalinowski: Mother and partner jailed for murdering teen son

An "evil" mother and her bodybuilder boyfriend have been jailed for life for murdering her teenage son.

Agnieszka Kalinowska, 35, and Andrzej Latoszewski, 38, tortured Sebastian Kalinowski at their home in Huddersfield for months before he died in August 2021.

The couple were found guilty of murder after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Kalinowska and Latoszewski were both told they would spend a minimum of 39 years in prison for his killing.

Mrs Justice Lambert said it was impossible to watch the CCTV footage, which captured much of Sebastian's abuse in the home, without being "utterly horrified".

Her sentencing remarks were filmed for the first time in England outside London, and only the third time they have been broadcast for some criminal cases.

She said Latoszewski, a regular gym-goer, was a "bully" who sought to intimidate and frighten 15-year-old Sebastian, regarding him as "easy prey".

Video filmed on an extensive network of cameras throughout the unassuming family home showed the boy being beaten around the house, with Latoszewski only stopping to wipe away sweat or to admire his muscles.

Addressing Kalinowska the judge said she "just did not care" what was happening to her son.

The judge described how the footage captured steroid-using Latoszewski using the teenager as a "punchbag" while his mother "sat indifferently on the sofa, eating, drinking or watching TV".

She said: "It shows you, Latoszewski, using your martial arts techniques to punch and kick Sebastian repeatedly about the torso and head, using Sebastian's body in the same way you used the punchbag in your garden.

"Kalinowska, you were almost always present when the abuse was inflicted."

When he was not being beaten, Sebastian would sit in his pristine bedroom as a punishment while the loved-up couple would go on walks together - watching the cameras on their mobile phone to make sure the boy did not leave his room.

During the six-week trial, the court heard how Sebastian arrived in the UK from Poland in October 2020 to live with his mother and her partner in West Yorkshire.

However, the arrangement quickly turned sour, with one family friend telling jurors they believed the couple came to view him as a "hindrance".

Over the following months Sebastian was repeatedly beaten by the couple and subjected to cruel and humiliating punishments if they thought he misbehaved.

Sebastian's father Jacek Kalinowski watched proceedings by video link from a courtroom in Poland.

In a victim impact statement read to the court in Leeds, he said the boy's mother was "the greatest evil that walks this Earth".

He said: "You turned every day of Sebastian's life into a nightmare.

"Why did you hate him to that degree when you allowed that psychopath to treat Sebastian like that, and then you readily participated in the whole thing?

"You inflicted so much pain and humiliation on him. You made my son a punchbag for yourself, you committed a terrifying act and you were merciless."

Thousands of people watched Mrs Justice Lambert sentence the pair to life in prison.

In a first for England outside London, her remarks were broadcast as part of an agreement with the Ministry of Justice and media partners, like the BBC.

Only a handful of cases have been selected for broadcast with any filming having to be agreed in advance.

While the public gallery in Court 8 at Leeds Crown Court only seats about 25 people, many more were able to watch the stream on the BBC website.

The judge said Latoszewski had installed the cameras so he could make sure that Sebastian was "performing his punishment exercises" when he wasn't there.

In total, 4,000 hours of footage was seized by police from a damaged hard drive, that the prosecution argued was hidden by Latoszewski as Sebastian lay dying on the bedroom floor.

Instead of calling for an ambulance, Jason Pitter KC said the stepfather worked to cover up the months of abuse instead of helping.

The court heard how Sebastian's death, on 13 August, was not as a result of any one injury but from an infection which set in around his broken ribs and developed into "overwhelming sepsis and collapse".

Medical examinations revealed the teen, who was small for his age, had suffered 28 fractures to his ribs over a period of time.

There was a large blood clot in his liver, his heart muscle was damaged and there were large scabs across his back and buttocks, with wounds the judge said were "so deep that the fat had been stripped down to the muscle".

Det Ch Insp Tony Nicholson, who led the investigation into Sebastian's murder, said the case had been the most harrowing of his 29-year police career.

"Sebastian was a child who could not have been more isolated and appears to have suffered the most appalling abuse in silence, and even come to see it as normal," he said.

"Latoszewski and Kalinowska abused this boy in a manner which was wicked and evil, and we may never know why they chose to act in this inhuman way."

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].