Two jailed for life for Dariusz Michalowski torture and murder in 2011

Ernest Weber, left, and Adam Tolwinski were found guilty of murder at Leeds Crown Court

Two men have been jailed for life for the torture and murder of a man 12 years ago in West Yorkshire.

Dariusz Michalowski died in 2011 but his remains were not found until 2020.

Adam Tolwinski and Ernest Weber were found guilty of killing 44-year-old Mr Michalowski at Leeds Crown Court.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC said the treatment of Mr Michalowski had been "sadistic" and that Mr Michalowski's wife and daughter had suffered "anguish" in the years since his death.

Tolwinski, 39, of Devonshire Street in Keighley, and Weber, 46, of no fixed address, were also found guilty of preventing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice.

A third man, Piotr Weber, 43, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and preventing a lawful burial, and was jailed for six years.

Tolwinski and Ernest Weber, who refused to attend the sentencing, were each given a minimum term of 33 years.

Dariusz Michalowski, 44, disappeared from his home in Huddersfield in March 2011

The court heard that Mr Michalowski, a former police dog handler, had family links with both Weber brothers in Poland.

He did some casual work for Ernest Weber and Tolwinski at a garage in Huddersfield, which the men owned.

But the pair believed Mr Michalowski had passed on information about illegal activity they were involved in and confronted him.

The court heard that they subjected him to a three-hour assault, which involved elements of "degradation and humiliation," on the night of 13 March 2011 at his flat in Huddersfield.

It included making him perform a sex act on a dog and eat the contents of an ash tray.

Tolwinski delivered the fatal stab wound to Mr Michalowski's neck.

The men took his body, wrapped in a duvet, to a rural area of Mixenden. Piotr Weber later helped bury the body.

Piotr Weber was jailed for six years for his role in concealing the murder

'Huge shock'

In a statement read in court, Mr Michalowski's wife Edyta said that after her husband went missing their daughter was "constantly waiting for a phone call from her dad".

She said her daughter became withdrawn and would wake up at night crying.

"I was both her mother, father and psychologist, even though I myself struggled with my husband's disappearance."

She said her daughter would write to Santa "asking for help finding her dad".

Mrs Michalowski described learning of the murder as a "huge shock and we could not get over it".

James Mulholland KC, representing Tolwinski , said he had no previous convictions.

He said Tolwinski had been trying "in a sense to impress Ernest Weber" and had not been in the room when some of the acts took place.

Mr Michalowski's body was found buried in woodland near Mixenden reservoir in Halifax in 2020

Judge Bayliss said the treatment of Mr Michalowski "does amount to sadistic conduct" and the cover-up of his murder had "added to the anguish suffered by his family".

"The child and mother were left in that unhappy state for 10 years."

He said "two very dangerous men" had been put behind bars.