Baby Tomas: what really happened?

Katarzyna Gacek

A MUM, her boyfriend and landlord stand accused of causing or allowing the death of a seven-week-old boy — after admitting lying about how he received his horrific injuries.

The trial of the trio whose actions caused the death of Tomas Gacek in Clarksfield in January began at Preston Crown Court yesterday.

Landlord Dawid Mokrzanowski (26), stands accused of manslaughter, while the baby’s mother Katarzyna Gacek (24), her boyfriend Darren James Butterfield (35) and Mokrzanowski all face charges of cruelty and allowing the death of a child.

All three also face charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice for giving a false account to police — an account all now accept was untrue.

The charges relate to an incident on January 25 when Tomas Gacek was taken to Royal Oldham Hospital at 11.35pm with severe head injuries.

It was noted Tomas was “pale, unresponsive and having a generalised seizure”. A scan showed he also had a severe brain injury.

The following day he was taken to Manchester Children’s Hospital but he was declared dead at 10.16pm on January 27.

Tomas had 22 bruises, four broken ribs, bleeding on the brain and retinal bleeding in both eyes.

The court heard when Gacek took Tomas to hospital, she told nurses she was carrying him up the stairs alone at 8pm when she slipped on a rug.

She dropped Tomas on to the stairs and was unable to prevent herself falling on him, causing bruising and a cut to his lip.

However, nurses said when Tomas was admitted it was immediately apparent he was seriously ill with multiple bruises that could not have been inflicted that way.

Nurse Nicola Dawson suspected serious non-accidental injury and contacted police.

When Butterworth and Gacek, of Hillside Avenue, spoke to police they indicated she had injured the baby by tripping over.

All three ultimately signed statements corroborating this but have since accepted Gacek was not alone with Tomas and did not fall while carrying him.

Ray Wigglesworth, prosecuting, described their account as “a pack of lies”, he added: “You are entitled to ask yourselves why these three agreed to lie?

“Is ii because they feared the reaction of social services or was there another motive for shielding the truth from hospital staff and police?”
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