Heroin addict guilty of killing 100-year-old Nazi camp survivor in mugging

A heroin addict has been found guilty of killing a 100-year-old Nazi camp survivor after he mugged her and left her bleeding in the road.

Artur Waszkiewicz knocked Zofija Kaczan to the floor in the middle of Empress Road in Derby while snatching her handbag on 28 May last year as she walked to church.

He left the Polish-born widow bleeding, and she suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured neck and cheekbone.

Having survived a Nazi camp during the Second World War, she died from pneumonia on 6 June, which was brought on by the injuries she sustained in the attack.

After deliberating for just over two hours, a jury of seven men and five women at Derby Crown Court unanimously convicted Waszkiewicz of manslaughter and robbery.

The 40-year-old self-confessed heroin addict, who was also born in Poland, wore a black velvet jacket and velvet slipper shoes as he looked straight ahead and showed no emotion while the verdicts were delivered.

He was caught on CCTV driving a Seat Leon minutes before robbing Mrs Kaczan, described by friends as having “a heart of gold”. He then screeched to a halt when he saw a “small, vulnerable” woman on her own.

Waszkiewicz was meeting a drug dealer later on to buy £20 of heroin so needed an “easy target” to steal from.

By ripping the handle of Mrs Kaczan’s handbag, he badly bruised her arm.

Prosecutor Kate Brunner QC, said: “She was attacked, she was thrown to the ground and her handbag was snatched from her.

“She was small, on her own, vulnerable – an easy target for a man desperate for money.

“He attacked Ms Kaczan, yanking her handbag from her and leaving her injured in the road and driving off.”

After the mugging he fled Derby and went to his mother’s house in London where he hid under a bed to avoid arrest.

The jury heard he shaved his long hair off and changed the insurance details on his car, which he had bought from his father.

When his vehicle was found abandoned in a car park, he had wiped it down with disinfectant, which was in the car.

Mrs Kaczan was told days before her death that Waszkiewicz had been arrested after his fingerprint was found on a receipt in her bag. She prayed for him.

He was so desperate for money that he had tried to sell his dog, and asked a neighbour for money.

Waszkiewicz had several previous convictions, including shoplifting, one offence of battery and creating false identification documents.

He denied the manslaughter and robbery charges, saying he found the green handbag in the middle of the road, picked it up and got rid of it at a well-known fly-tipping area because there was no cash.

A spokeswoman for St Maksymilian Kolbe, the church Mrs Kaczan attended, thanked everybody who helped bring Waszkiewicz to justice.

She said that although Mrs Kaczan was a centenarian, she enjoyed her life “going to church, shopping, having her hair done and attending the lunches at the Polish Centre followed by bingo”.

Mrs Kaczak “had a very difficult early life” but after coming to Derby in 1949 she “found a degree of stability and tranquillity” which was “shattered by the brutal events of 28 May, 2018”, she added.

She said: “Despite the pain and suffering that she was in for the last week of her life, she had the capacity to pray for her attacker before she died. We believe she has found peace in the arms of her Heavenly Father.”

(c) Sky News 2019: Heroin addict guilty of killing 100-year-old Nazi camp survivor in mugging