A quarter of a century ago, he raped and murdered a teenage girl. The Court of Appeal... reduced the sentence

Jan G. was charged by the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office with committing— with particular cruelty—the crime of murder in connection with rape. He committed these acts against a 15-year-old girl in August 1993 in Zbylutów, in Lwówek County.

The Wrocław Court of Appeal examined the appeal filed by the defendant’s defense against the judgment of the Jelenia Góra Regional Court. (Jan G. had at that time been found guilty of the act of which he was charged and sentenced to life imprisonment.)

The second-instance court agreed with the findings of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Regional Court and upheld the defendant’s conviction. At the same time, it indicated that G. should be held liable under the 1969 Criminal Code, under which the harshest term of imprisonment was 25 years; these provisions were therefore more lenient toward the perpetrator.

The detection of the crime, bringing Jan G. before the court, and securing his conviction were the result of cooperation between the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office and officers from the X Archive of the Lower Silesian Provincial Police Headquarters in Wrocław.

In 2008, after a prosecutor analyzed the files from the discontinued investigation, it was determined that there were grounds for taking action that could lead to identifying the perpetrator of the crime.

At the initiative of the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office, a so-called X Archive team was established at the Lower Silesian Provincial Police Headquarters in Wrocław in 2009. It subsequently conducted further investigative activities together with the prosecutor.

Thanks to the collection of a series of new pieces of evidence, including through the use of modern methods, it was established beyond any doubt that Jan G. had committed the brutal crime against the 15-year-old girl years earlier.

The Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office filed the indictment in this case in July 2016. The perpetrator, now 44, admitted only to raping the victim, not to murdering her.

The Prosecutor’s Office filed a request for the reasoning behind the Court of Appeal’s ruling. After it is analyzed, a decision will be made on whether to file a cassation appeal in the case.