Aleksander Pawlak: Five accused of attack on victim

Aleksander Pawlak was fatally injured in a Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

A man suffered fatal injuries in "a sustained violent assault" by a gang armed with table and chair legs, a court has heard.

Aleksander Pawlak, 30, was pronounced dead in Pinderfields Road, Wakefield, shortly after midnight on 9 September 2019, Bradford Crown Court heard .

He had suffered facial fractures and other injuries in the late-night attack at his basement flat.

Four men and a woman deny murder and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Prosecutor Peter Moulson QC told jurors that all five defendants had travelled in a Volkswagen Passat from Southampton to Wakefield.

He told the jury that a dispute over a debt, possibly drugs related, between Adam Litwinowicz, 24, and Mr Pawlak had led to the killing.

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The court heard that some of the group had brought table or chair legs with them and some also had gloves.

Mr Moulson told the jury that the nature and distribution of the injuries strongly suggested that he had been subjected to "a sustained, violent assault" close to the time of his death.

"In the course of the attack upon Mr Pawlak neighbours heard screaming and shouting from the premises and the emergency services were called," he said.

Police and paramedics found Mr Pawlak in the back yard just outside the door and despite efforts to save him he was declared dead just after midnight.

Mr Moulson alleged that Mr Litwinowicz, Maciaj Solarz, 28, and Michal Szymanski, 24, had all gone into the basement flat where Mr Pawlak lived alone.

Police in Kent arrested Michal Szymanski, his girlfriend Karolina Kukawska, 21, and Mr Litwinowicz, all of No Fixed Abode, as they waited in a vehicle to board a ferry at Dover on 14 September.

Marceli Szymanski, 20, of Mallards Road, Bursledon, was also arrested during the inquiry while he was driving a car in Hampshire.

The case continues.