“Never in my life would I ever leave my children with him.”
Magdelena Luczak and Mariusz Krezolek (NEWSTEAM)
Luczak, who met Krezolek in England after she left life in Lodz, central Poland, left four-year-old Daniel reduced to “broken bag of bones” after months of abuse along with Krezolek.
Her younger sister said her mother had visited the couple two weeks before Daniel’s death and had serious concerns about his condition, coming back “with terrible stories.”
She told the newspaper: “My mother went to England to visit Magada two weeks before Daniel died and came back with terrible stories.
“She said: ‘Something terrible is happening in that house.’”
Yolanta, Luczak’s mother, also told the Mail that her husband died due to the stress of seeing his daughter charged his grandson’s murder.
She said: “Mariusz doesn’t deserve to walk on this earth. I’m in no state to talk about this, my life is full of tragedy.”
Magdalena Luczak told the jury that Mariusz Krezolek’s behaviour towards Daniel was “slowly changing” after the family moved to their final address in Coventry in Aril 2011 (PRISCILLA COLEMAN)
Jurors wept as they heard how Daniel Pelka was often so hungry that he would steal food from classmates and would root around in bins for scraps.
The pair, who came to Coventry from native Poland in 2006, were said to have subjected Daniel to “unimaginable cruelty”.
Neither showed any emotion as after four hours of deliberation the jury returned guilty verdicts. They will be sentenced tomorrow.
According to a neighbour Luczak would be picked up at night and dropped off in the same car in the morning, leading to suspicions that she was a prostitute.
Eryk Pelka, Daniel’s natural father, a lorry driver, said last night: “I feel hate towards Magda. I hope she will never come out of jail.
A stained mattress Daniel Pelka was forced to sleep on during his confinement in the box room (PA)
“I had very limited access to Daniel once I returned to Poland. Every time I rang Magda would make excuses.”
At one point his mother held him under bath water until he passed out, sending a text message to Krezolek saying: “I am having some quiet time.”
The boy’s murder, which occurred weeks after teaching staff saw him with bruising to his neck and black eyes, is now subject of a serious case review by Coventry’s Safeguarding Children Board.
Tim Loughton MP, the ex-Children’s Minister, said it was “chilling” that a “number of agencies were aware” of the case.
Mr Loughton told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “The problem is that there are evil people who will do evil things to vulnerable children, and even their own children.
“The job of the system and of child protection is to make the opportunities to do these evil things much harder and to spot it when you see some early warning signs.
“The chilling thing about this case is that a number of agencies were aware of this child.
“This was not a child who was hidden from the world.”
However the former Conservative minister said “a lot is being done” to solve the problem of child abuse.
Daniel Pelka (circled green) leaving school with his mother (circled yellow) just hours before he died
Jurors in the trial were also told how Daniel was left to die in his unheated “cell” for around 33 hours after suffering a fatal head injury at his Coventry home on March 1 last year.
Former soldier Krezolek – described in court as a heartless “monster” – and Luczak blamed each other for Daniel’s death during the trial.
But text messages between the pair proved they worked as a team to inflict the sickening abuse and even decided not to summon an ambulance as Daniel lay dying with more than 20 separate injuries.
Daniel weighed just 1 stone 9 lbs, and was repeatedly struck around the head, causing his brain to swell.
The serious case review is also expected to look into contact between doctors and Daniel, who was seen by a community paediatrician and found to be underweight but not “wasted” three weeks before his death.
During the meeting with the paediatrican, Dr Supratik Chakraborthy, Krezolek laughed out loud as Luczak explained how Daniel had once eaten discarded chips he had picked up from a pavement.
Medical records show Daniel weighed 14.8kg in January 2011 and 13.8kg three weeks before his death.
But the schoolboy, who had developed normally until January 2011, weighed just 10.7kg and was in a state of “skeletal emaciation” at the time of his death on March 3 last year.
Experts in paediatric development told the court Daniel had low iron stores, low zinc stores, wafer thin body fat, and barely any muscle at the point of his death.
Although he should been around 3ft 9ins, he was only 3ft 3ins because his bones had stopped growing due to food deprivation over at least three months and possibly up to nine months.
The serious case review will examine why social services and police did not become involved after staff at Coventry’s Little Heath Primary School noticed bruising on his neck and what appeared to be two black eyes.
Although the injuries to the neck were entered in a concerns book at Daniel’s school, no written record was made of the later bruising seen around his eyes.
Luczak played a leading role in convincing teachers and medical professionals that Daniel’s weight less, which the court heard left him looking like a famine victim, was due to a rare genetic disorder.
Social services closed their file on Daniel five months after the injury was passed off as an accident in January 2011.
