The crime took place on 15 February 2019 in Szklarska Poręba. That afternoon, passers-by noticed a fire in a former guesthouse building. After the Fire Service arrived and extinguished the fire, the bodies of four people were found inside a room on the building’s third floor.
An investigation conducted by the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office and the Municipal Police Headquarters established that, from the early morning hours that day, five acquaintances had been in one of the building’s rooms, consuming large quantities of alcohol. In the afternoon, one of those present left the room and then shut the door, deliberately blocking the entrance with an armchair from the corridor, which he then set on fire.
The fire quickly spread throughout the building, and as a result, the four people remaining in the room died. Jacek B. was identified as the perpetrator of the fire and was charged with killing four people and causing the fire.
At the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the man was placed in pre-trial detention.
In February 2020, the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment with the Court.
On 30 November 2020, the Jelenia Góra Regional Court found Jacek B. guilty of the crime with which he had been charged and sentenced him to life imprisonment, in accordance with the Prosecutor’s Office’s request.
The verdict is not final.
Jacek B., 63, had no permanent place of residence. He had previously been convicted by a court.
The victims were two women and two men aged between 55 and 65.