The incident occurred on October 23, 2019, in one of the housing estates in Legnica, in a multi-storey apartment block where the accused and his victim lived in apartments on different floors. The victim worked as a nurse in the Intensive Medical Care Department of the Provincial Specialist Hospital in Legnica. At around 3:00 p.m. on the day of the incident, she was returning from work. On the way, she did some shopping. As the woman entered her apartment, she was attacked from behind by the accused, who forcibly pushed her inside. In the hallway, the accused struck the victim several times on the head with a metal pipe he had with him, causing her to fall to the floor. After a moment, she attempted to get up, at which point Paweł P. struck her again on the head with the metal pipe and then began strangling her by the neck, causing the victim’s death by asphyxiation.
After committing the murder, the accused removed a gold chain from the victim’s neck and took PLN 450 from a wallet in her handbag before fleeing the scene. These evidentiary findings indicate that the crime was motivated by robbery.
From the victim’s apartment, Paweł P. returned to the apartment of relatives, where he had been living recently. There, he changed clothes and went into the city with a backpack. He hid his bloodstained clothing, the murder weapon and the keys to the victim’s apartment in the backpack, then discarded them along the way. He next went to a gaming arcade in the city centre, where he spent some of the money stolen from the victim playing on machines. Some time after the crime, he pawned the victim’s gold chain at a pawnshop, receiving PLN 700 for it. The police found and secured this evidence in the case. The chain was unequivocally identified by a witness who had given it to the victim as a gift. DNA testing confirmed the presence of biological traces belonging to the accused at the crime scene, while traces of his victim were secured on items belonging to Paweł P.
The victim’s co-workers, concerned about her absence from work on October 24, 2019, and their inability to contact her, went to her apartment and found it locked. After entering the woman’s apartment, emergency services discovered her body in the hallway.
The prosecutor charged Paweł P. with intentionally murdering a woman in connection with robbery by striking her nine times on the head with a metal pipe and causing blunt-force injuries to her head, and then strangling her by the neck, thereby causing her death by asphyxiation, and subsequently taking a gold chain and money with the intention of appropriating them—that is, with an act under Article 148 § 2, point 2, and Article 280 § 2 of the Criminal Code, in conjunction with Article 11 § 2 of the Criminal Code.
When questioned as a suspect, Paweł P. admitted committing the alleged act and gave an explanation. He described the course of events, although some of the important facts he provided differed from other objective evidence. He said he did not know why he had done it. He confirmed taking the chain
and the money. He spent the money at a gaming arcade. He identified the pawnshop where he had pawned the chain obtained through the crime. He claims that he is addicted to gambling.
During the investigation, expert psychiatrists, a psychologist and a sexologist, after conducting a forensic psychiatric examination combined with observation at a medical facility, issued an opinion on Paweł P.’s mental health and his criminal responsibility tempore criminis. The hospital diagnostics provided grounds only for diagnosing the accused with pathological gambling, which, in the experts’ view, has no bearing on the assessment of his criminal responsibility. The experts found neither diminished nor excluded criminal responsibility. He is capable of participating in the trial.
For murder committed in connection with robbery, the accused faces a prison sentence of no less than 12 years, 25 years’ imprisonment or life imprisonment.