On December 8, at the first hearing before the District Court in Legnica, 44-year-old defendant Andrzej P. pleaded guilty to all offenses charged against him by the prosecutor of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica and applied for voluntary submission to punishment.

The court granted the defendant’s application and sentenced him to a combined six-year prison term for all the offenses charged in the indictment. P. must also, among other things, pay PLN 5,000 in compensation to the injured party, Katarzyna K., as well as court costs. The court also ordered the forfeiture of the drugs and ammunition found in the convicted man’s apartment.

The verdict is not final, but the district prosecutor considered it justified. Since P. is already serving a two-year prison sentence from a previous verdict, once the December 8 verdict becomes final, he will spend eight years behind bars.

Let us recall: at the beginning of December, we reported that the district prosecutor had filed an indictment with the District Court in Legnica against 44-year-old Andrzej P., accusing him of committing ten offenses, including acts consisting of the following:

  • from February 17 to December 20 of the previous year in Legnica, acting for financial gain and using violence in the form of beating her all over her body, as well as unlawful threats to cause bodily harm, he forced Katarzyna K. into prostitution, deriving financial benefits from it
  • On December 20 of the previous year in Legnica, he caused Katarzyna K. serious bodily harm in the form of significant disfigurement: he doused her with a flammable liquid and then set her on fire, causing second- and third-degree thermal burns.

All these events occurred after the defendant left pre-trial detention. P. again brought Katarzyna K. to his apartment in Legnica—one of the women who had previously lived with him and engaged in prostitution, from which the man derived financial benefits. What is more, the defendant forced the injured woman to change her previously given testimony that was unfavorable to him.

From then on, K. was again forced by him, through beatings and unlawful threats, to engage in prostitution. On December 20, 2015, however, she refused to go to a client. The defendant then... doused her with spirits and set her on fire.

Burned Katarzyna K. remained in P.’s apartment for two days without any assistance. Only after that time was she taken by the defendant’s daughter to the Regional Specialist Hospital in Legnica, from where she was transferred to the Burns Unit of the hospital in Nowa Sól.

At that point, the defendant began deriving financial benefits from dealing in drugs—methamphetamine and marijuana. The prosecutor’s charges also included possession of drugs—13 grams of marijuana and almost 1 gram of methamphetamine—and handling stolen goods.