A year ago, Bolesławiec was shaken by news of a murder committed by Sebastian R., who was 32 at the time. The man attacked his not-quite-four-year-old son Filip and the boy’s mother, Wioleta, with a knife. During the incident, the woman managed to leave the apartment and enter the stairwell, where the perpetrator continued attacking her. Sebastian R. threw the child, probably already dead, out of the window.
The police officers who arrived at the scene discovered the woman’s body lying on the stairwell. The woman showed no signs of life. When they entered the apartment, Sebastian R., holding a knife, tried to attack one of the officers. The officer fired his service weapon at the attacker, wounding him in the abdominal area. Sebastian R. was taken to hospital. There, while being treated by doctors, he spoke incoherently about a “mission from God.”
What did the prosecution request? What did the court decide?
In July 2019, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Bolesławiec filed a motion with the Regional Court in Jelenia Góra to discontinue the proceedings and place Sebastian R. in a secure psychiatric facility.
“It was established, after psychiatric observation and obtaining expert opinions, that the perpetrator was completely legally insane at the time of the act. The prosecution filed a motion to discontinue the proceedings and apply preventive measures. This is a mandatory procedure when the perpetrator is found to be completely legally insane and a preventive measure is necessary,” prosecutor Ewa Łomnicka told the istotne.pl portal.
In October 2019, the Regional Court in Jelenia Góra issued a decision finding that Sebastian R.’s conduct fulfilled the elements of offences under Article 148 § 1 of the Criminal Code (Anyone who kills a human being is subject to a penalty of imprisonment for not less than 8 years, a penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment, or life imprisonment) in conjunction with Article 31 § 1 of the Criminal Code (A person does not commit an offence if, because of mental illness, intellectual disability or another disturbance of mental functions, they could not at the time of the act understand its significance or control their conduct) and, pursuant to Article 17 § 1 point 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Proceedings shall not be instituted, and instituted proceedings shall be discontinued, when the act does not contain the elements of a prohibited act or the law provides that the perpetrator does not commit an offence) and Article 31 § 1 of the Criminal Code, the proceedings were discontinued and the defendant was ordered to be placed in a secure psychiatric hospital.
The court decided that the murderer would stay in a maximum-security facility in Branice (Opole Voivodeship). The court’s decision is final. The length of stay at the facility is not determined in advance; it depends on expert opinions issued regularly every six months regarding the course of treatment and its progress.
It is possible that Sebastian R. will one day leave the psychiatric facility.
“The Lord is my shepherd…”
A public post that Sebastian R. published the day before the murder, captioned “I love this tune xD,” is still visible on Facebook. The man shared his musical fascination: the song “Gam Gam” by the duo Marnik & Smak. Unwittingly, the song’s creators used the text of Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. […] Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…”. After World War II, the words of the psalm also became a kind of hymn sung in memory of the genocide of children murdered by the Nazis. Sebastian R., knowingly or not, posted precisely such a “tune” several hours before he killed his son.
“A murderer who cold-bloodedly kills a child and his common-law partner could have been under the influence of a psychoactive substance, a drug causing psychosis,” explains specialist Dawid Kołodziej, president of the Psychopedagogical Society. “Methamphetamine is among the most popular and accessible substances on the market. A psychotic state following the use of a psychoactive substance can last several hours, days or weeks, and may even persist for the rest of one’s life,” the psychologist warns.
Dawid Kołodziej adds that psychosis is a disorder described in psychiatry as a state of mind. A person then experiences severe disturbances related to the perception of reality. In a state of psychosis, thinking becomes completely disorganized. Such a person is convinced that their experiences are real and believes that they are functioning normally.
A surgeon from the Bolesławiec hospital described the day when the shot man was brought to his ward. Sebastian R. was then babbling about a “mission from God” and, according to the doctor, confirmed that he had killed his son and the boy’s mother, his partner.
“At first, he was aggressive,” surgeon Adam Gryc said. “Several people had to hold him down while blood was being drawn. He struggled, contact was impaired, and he spoke about some mission from God. It was chaotic and seemed illogical. When asked what had happened, he said that he had killed a child and his wife. I did not engage in discussion; I assessed the situation objectively—what condition he was in and what I could do in that situation,” the doctor added.
Facebook: let people vent their anger, rage, grief and pain
There are more than 400 comments under Sebastian R.’s last post. The entries are full of aggression, profanity and criminal threats. “You piece of filth!!! You have no conscience; I hope severe punishment catches up with you in prison, especially for that poor little child, you psychopath!” is one of the milder comments. There are also people calling for understanding and reprimanding the more aggressive commenters, but there are other voices speaking of the co-responsibility of drug dealers: “Now let the brave one say who gave him [narkotyki przyp. red.], because he is partly to blame; dealers sell death, and let the one who sold it to him now carry the guilt for the death of that innocent child.” One female internet user responded to accusations that many comments were too brutal and aggressive: “This is not aggression, only pain and helplessness that no one can influence what happens while an innocent child dies. Anger, rage, grief and pain. People want to let it out.”
I had the pleasure of staying in a psychiatric hospital with him…
Among the many commenters is a man who says that he stayed in the observation ward of a psychiatric hospital for offenders in Lubiąż with, among others, Sebastian R.
His post, whose authenticity is difficult to verify, begins: “I had the honor of staying in the observation ward of the psychiatric hospital for offenders in Lubiąż (June 18–July 15) with four other people, including him.” The man wrote that Sebastian R. “[..] resembles Harry Potter’s Wormtail in character.” He describes the man’s fate as follows: “To comfort those who wish him ill, I will add that he has no glasses, and with his +6 prescription he cannot watch television at all; he lies there and shakes his head from side to side—that is probably his only hobby. Most likely, his next stop will be ROPS, a facility with the strictest regime for the mentally ill (cameras even in the toilets, in every corner).”