‘Body parts' killer jailed for life for murder of pensioner housemate
A Polish man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 34 years for the murder and dismemberment of a pensioner he sawed into 27 pieces.
Marcin Majerkiewicz, 42, who police say had an obsession with gore and gruesome horror and has a tattoo of slasher-film character Jason from Friday The 13th, bludgeoned Stuart Everett with a hammer at the house they shared in Winton, Salford.
The defendant then used a hacksaw to dismember his 67-year-old friend and housemate, described as a jolly, friendly, mild-mannered man.
He also flayed the face off Mr Everett's skull before taking body parts in plastic bags on bus journeys across Salford and Manchester to dump the evidence.
Majerkiewicz, a father-of-two with his Polish ex-partner, denied responsibility for the killing in March last year, but offered no evidence in his defence.
Jurors convicted him last Friday of the murder in under two hours of deliberations following a three-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
The court heard he almost got away with it after disposing of the body, tricking Mr Everett's family that he was still alive and planning to flee abroad. But a 'great piece of luck' and dogged police work led to his arrest.
Trial judge Mr Justice Cavanagh told Majerkiewicz, who made no reaction as he was jailed, it was pre-planned murder for gain, to steal Mr Everett's money to pay off the killer's spiralling debts.
He said: 'You acted in an almost unbelievably cold-blooded and macabre way and showed complete disrespect and contempt for your friend's remains.
'This denied dignity to Stuart Everett even in death and greatly increased the pain suffered by Stuart Everett's family when the murder came to light.'
Retired civil servant Mr Everett was murdered overnight between March 27 and 28 last year.
But police were only alerted after his torso was found by a member of the public at Kersal Dale nature reserve in Salford on April 4.
Police scoured CCTV from the area and discovered, two days before, a man entering the wooded area carrying a heavy blue bag and emerging shortly after without it.
His identity was unknown but three weeks later, Majerkiewicz was spotted by an officer working on the case who drove past him by chance and noted he looked like the man from the CCTV.
The killer was arrested.
When police searched his address in Winton, Salford, they found evidence of blood on a carpet and furniture and an attempted clean-up after the killing and dismemberment.
Only a third of Mr Everett's body has been recovered.
Born Roman Ziemacki to Polish parents who came to the UK after surviving two years in a Russian concentration camp and settled in Derby, Mr Everett first met his killer while teaching English to recently arrived Polish immigrants in Manchester.
Mr Everett had worked for the NHS and Department for Work and Pensions, was known as 'Benny' to his family, was not married and had no children, and was a fan of 'Rat Pack' singers Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
He also enjoyed gardening, cricket and a bet on horses.
His brother Richard Ziemacki, in a victim impact statement read to the court, said: 'It's extremely difficult to put into words how much I miss him. Seeing my brother on CCTV and listening to his voice for the last time will be moments that will live with me forever – I have no words other than absolutely horrendous.
'Every day we have sat watching in disbelief as the evidence unfolded and clearly shown the way my brother's end had been planned and orchestrated by an incredibly devious, monstrous individual.'
In 2013, Mr Everett began living in a three-bed terrace house on Worsley Road in the Winton area of Salford.
He began sub-letting the two other bedrooms to two Polish men, Michal Polchowsk, 68, with the other, Majerkiewicz, moving in during 2017.
The defendant had worked as a manager at fast-food shops in the Trafford Centre but was unemployed at the time of the murder, with financial pressures building in the household with Majerkiewicz owing £60,000 in loan debt and £14,000 on credit cards.
After the initial torso discovery, police launched Operation Harker, finding evidence in 15 crime scenes and human remains at five different sites.
Detectives pieced together thousands of hours of CCTV, tracking the defendant's movements, also discovering human remains at Linnyshaw Colliery Woods, Blackleach Reservoir, Worsley Woods and Boggart Hole Clough.
Majerkiewicz also dumped parts a short walk from his home address beside a canal, and on one occasion he had a KFC meal immediately after dumping body parts.
Pathology of the skull fragments showed Mr Everett had been subject to a 'sustained, severe blunt-force physical assault', with repeated blows to his head, shattering and fracturing his skull.
In Majerkiewicz's bedroom there was heavy bloodstaining, suggesting Mr Everett was attacked and dismembered in that room.
The third occupant of the house, food-processing factory worker Mr Polchowski, was living at the address at the time of the murder and dismemberment.
A murder charge against him was later dropped.
Mr Everett's family initially had no idea he was dead.
Majerkiewicz had assumed use of his finances and his mobile phone, even sending text messages and a birthday card to his family purporting to be from Mr Everett.
He had been searching online for properties to rent in the Alicante area of Spain before his arrest.
Mr Justice Cavanagh praised Greater Manchester Police for 'truly outstanding' work on the case.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Southport monster has tests in prison to see if he's 'mad not bad'
Axel Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years for killing Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Alice Aguiar, nine, and six-year-old Bebe King at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport Triple child killer Axel Rudakubana is being considered for a move from prison to a "cushy" secure hospital, it is understood. The 18-year-old murderer has reportedly had assessments with therapists and psychologists over whether he is "mad not bad" and, if the fiend is cleared for treatment in a mental health unit he could be transferred to a different jail. Currently in HMP Belmarsh, a tough Category A prison, Rudakubana will move to either Broadmoor, Ashworth or Rampton hospitals. Inmates at these - England's three top-secure psychiatric units - are treated as "patients" rather than prisoners, with a focus on their therapy. But this has caused anger, not least as The Mirror has reported last month Rudakubana, from Banks, Lancashire, already has privileges amid his "cushy life" in jail. He requests treats such as Maltesers and McCoy's - and has them delivered to his cell by prison guards whom are colleagues of an officer Rudakubana recently scolded with boiling water. "If he was moved, he would be kept in better conditions, with all the rooms single ones and less restrictions on things like TV and DvDs plus visitors... If you are serving a sentence as long as his, you would want to be in a secure hospital unit rather than prison. No officer at Belmarsh believes he is mentally ill but he says the right things in meetings," a source said last night. Any move would also hit the taxpayer with a much higher bill – of £325,000 per year compared to £57,000 in prison - for Rudakubana's care. The yob is serving at least 52 years for killing Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Alice Aguiar, nine, and six-year-old Bebe King last summer. Speaking to The Sun, the source added: "Conversations are happening now about his future, after he was being assessed by therapists, psychologists and other medical experts. He is very keen for a move because but others at Belmarsh think he is gaming the system." When the teenager was sentenced in January, it was revealed he had been under the care of an NHS mental health service between 2019 and 2023 - until he "stopped engaging". The fiend has been held under strict conditions at Belmarsh, which is in southeast London, but he somehow was able to attack the guard in May. Rudakubana was allowed a kettle and is believed to have used it to boil water ahead of the "serious assault," after which the officer needed treatment in hospital. He has since returned to work, it is understood. Ministry of Justice sources told The Sun initial assessments had started – but said no hospital referral had been "initiated" or was ongoing.
The National
6 hours ago
- The National
Farage's proposal is just the latest undermining of the Barnett system
This, according to senior criminologists and ex-police officers, is not just a failure of admin, it's the result of austerity-era cuts that stripped police forces of capacity, dismantled the state-run Forensic Science Service in 2012, and left fragmented, underfunded systems to cope with ballooning evidence demands. Austerity didn't just weaken institutions; it disassembled infrastructure. READ MORE: Nigel Farage could cut the Barnett Formula. Here's what devolution experts think of that While these failings may seem like an English and Welsh concern, they tell a broader UK-wide story. Because when public services are cut in England, the Barnett formula translates those cuts into reduced budget allocations for Holyrood, too. Scotland has long borne the dual burden of being denied full fiscal autonomy while also seeing its devolved budget squeezed by decisions made for entirely different priorities south of the Border. Cuts to police, criminal courts, housing, public health, and local government in England have systematically eroded the spending floor on which Scottish services rest. So when justice collapses in England, it affects Scotland financially – even if the governance is separate. And now, against this backdrop of UK-wide budgetary degradation, Nigel Farage has called for the scrapping of the Barnett formula entirely. It's a move that's politically convenient, historically illiterate, and economically reckless. But more than anything, it's a distillation of what's already happening by stealth. Successive UK governments have undermined the foundations of the Barnett system – and devolution itself – for more than a decade. READ MORE: Furious Anas Sarwar clashes with BBC journalist over Labour policies It's obvious to every Scot that Farage's view relies on a mischaracterisation of Barnett as a subsidy, when in fact it simply ensures Scotland receives a proportional share of changes to spending in England for devolved services. It doesn't calculate entitlement or need, it mirrors policy shifts at Westminster. If England increases education or health spending, Scotland sees a relative uplift. If England cuts deeply, Scotland's budget falls, even if demand remains or rises. This has led to an absurd and punitive dynamic where Scotland loses funding not by its own decisions, but because England spends less. And when Scotland chooses to maintain higher standards in public services, it must do so from a proportionately smaller pot. Perversely, it doesn't stop there, though. Since the 2016 Brexit vote, Westminster has begun bypassing devolved governments directly. Funds like the Levelling Up Fund and Shared Prosperity Fund are allocated by UK ministers to local authorities, often bypassing Holyrood entirely. Promises made in The Vow on the eve of the 2014 independence referendum to deliver near-federal powers and respect Scottish decision-making have unravelled. READ MORE: SNP must turn support for independence into 'real political action' The Internal Market Act has overridden devolved laws under the banner of market 'consistency'. Powers that returned from Brussels in areas like food standards, procurement, and agriculture were supposed to go to Holyrood, but in many cases they were retained by Westminster. The Sewel Convention, once a safeguard of devolved consent, has been treated as optional. Farage's proposal to scrap Barnett isn't an outlier, it's the natural conclusion of a decade-long pattern: cut services in England, shrink the Barnett allocation, bypass devolved institutions, and then blame the devolved nations for 'taking more than their share'. There's no consideration of fairness, or implementation of a needs-based analysis, it's a strategy of erosion; one that gouges out the Union from the centre while draping itself in the flag. The failures of justice in England, catastrophic as they are, expose a deeper injustice: the systematic unravelling of the constitutional promises made to Scotland. Ron Lumiere via email
Belfast Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Two men charged with murder after teenage pedestrian died in ‘hit-and-run'
Zulkernain Ahmed, 20, and Amaan Ahmed, 26, both of Locke Drive, Sheffield, have been charged in relation to the death of Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Al Yazidi, 16, South Yorkshire Police said. The teenager was walking along Staniforth Road in the Darnall area of Sheffield on Wednesday afternoon when he was hit by a car. It is understood that a grey Audi had driven towards three electric bikes, colliding with one rider, the force said. As the car continued after the crash, it collided with Abdullah. The teenager died in hospital. The driver of the Audi failed to stop at the scene, police said. The 18-year-old man riding an electric bike suffered serious injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening. He remains in hospital. Two people, a man, aged 46, and a woman, aged 45, arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender remain on police bail. The two men who have been charged will appear before Sheffield Magistrates' Court on Monday. Abdullah had recently arrived in the UK from Yemen 'for a better future', his family said. Relatives and friends of Abdullah said he was devoted to his family and would 'light up their faces with a big smile'. He arrived in the UK from Yemen two or three months ago, and had devoted himself to learning English ahead of starting at college in September. Abdullah's relative Saleh Alsirkal runs the corner shop on Staniforth Road which the teenager visited just before the crash. He said that he had a hospital appointment earlier in the afternoon and popped into the store, as he often did, before heading off to find some food. Mr Alsirkal said: 'His dad brought him over to change his life, to get a better future for his son, but this has happened and destroyed everything.' Mr Alsirkal said Abdullah was a 'kind boy' who just wanted to look after his family. He said he was really enjoying learning English. 'Every time he had a new word to learn he was so excited about it,' he said. 'It meant a lot to him and he learned quick. Sometimes he would stay in the shop just so he could talk to people. He tried to be friends with everyone.'
