The 12-year manslaughter sentence given to a man who had been violent to his partner and admitted killing her in a text message to a friend “shows how the criminal justice system fails to deliver justice for women”, campaigners have argued.
Pawel Ondycz, 50, stabbed his partner, Kinga Roskinska, 38, in the leg at his flat in Birmingham on 14 March last year. Despite the efforts of paramedics, she died soon after she was found.
According to West Midlands police, Ondycz did not call paramedics immediately after stabbing Roskinska, but called his friends for help and later said he did not speak enough English to call 999. He then falsely told emergency services that Roskinska had killed herself after she became jealous about another woman.
Ondycz was sentenced at Worcester crown court to 12 years in prison on 21 December after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
The police force said Ondycz had a history of violence towards Roskinska, and that it decided to charge him over her death after reviewing his phone records and finding a text message to a friend in which he admitted killing her. Police found bloodstained clothing and knives in his flat.
Karen Ingala Smith, who with Clarrie O’Callaghan founded the Femicide Census, said the sentence was an indictment of the justice system.
“Pawel Ondycz abused Kinga Roskinska. He picked up a knife and he stabbed her,” she said. “A sentence of a mere 12 years shows how the criminal justice system fails to deliver justice for women whose lives are taken by men.”
DS Ian Wilkins said Ondycz “told a series of lies to hide the fact that he had stabbed” Roskinska. He added: “Ondycz and Kinga were in a relationship for around two years and during that time Ondycz had been violent towards her. The outcome will not bring Kinga back, but I hope the sentence will ease some of the pain for Kinga’s loved ones.”
In a statement, Roskinska’s family said her three children had been left without a mother, whose love could never be replaced.
“As a family, we have been left devastated and we are doing all we can to support the children,” they said. “Kinga was taken from us too soon, in a sudden and violent way, something which we are all still coming to terms with. Losing a sister and a mother at such a young age is a very traumatic experience.
“We knew that Kinga would never have deliberately taken her own life, and we are relieved that Ondycz finally admitted responsibility for killing her.”
Anna Ryder, the director of Killed Women, said society had to stop seeing women’s deaths at the hands of men as “unavoidable tragedies to be expected and accepted”. She added: “We must have a system that focuses on preventing these crimes before they happen, ensures justice when they do, and provides ongoing support and care for those families left behind.”