‘Pack of lies’ as trio jailed

Date published: 16 July 2014


A MUM who colluded with two men to tell “a pack of lies” about the death of her seven-week-old son has been jailed for 20 months.

Baby Tomas Gacek died from severe head injuries as medical experts concluded the most probable cause was non-accidental, Preston Crown Court heard.

The youngster was admitted to the Royal Oldham Hospital from his home on Hillside Avenue, Clarksfield, on the late evening of January 25 with multiple bruises all over his body, severe retinal bleeding in both eyes and was said to be pale, unresponsive and having a seizure. He was transferred to Manchester Children’s Hospital but was pronounced dead two days later.

Prosecutor Raymond Wigglesworth QC said a consultant paediatrician found the number of bruises — 25 different sites — on Tomas’s body were “suggestive of inflicted injuries and were not consistent with accidental injuries to a non-mobile baby.”

The post-mortem also showed that Tomas had four fractured ribs said to have been caused in the days before he suffered the fatal head injury.

The court heard that Tomas’s mother, Katarzyna Gacek, had been out shopping on January 25 when she returned at lunch to find a cut and bruising around her son’s lip.

She was told by live-in landlord Dawid Mokrzanowski that he had fallen asleep and that Tomas must have banged his mouth on the frame of his rocking cradle, the court was told.

Her boyfriend Darren Butterfield, of Ross Avenue, Chadderton, arrived at the house just after 2pm but the jury heard that the baby was not taken to hospital until after 11pm.

Gacek (24), fellow Polish national Mokrzanowski (26) and Butterfield (35) were cleared of causing or allowing the death of a child. Mokrzanowski was also cleared of manslaughter.

All three defendants initially told medics and police that Gacek was alone in the house all day and she accidentally tripped on the stairs, dropped her son and then fell on him.

Each later changed their accounts but the prosecutor in opening the case said the jury was entitled to ask whey they had told “a pack of lies”.

Mr Wigglesworth added: “Why did the three defendants agree to lie about what happened to Tomas? Was it because they feared social services coming in asking questions or was there some other motive for shielding the truth from the hospital staff and police?”

Gacek, Mokrzanowski and Butterfield were all jailed for 20 months after they were convicted of perverting the course of justice, said police.
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