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True Crime Presents Season 2 Episode 5
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00:02When a murder's committed, it's always a race against time to find the truth, to separate fact from fiction, to
00:10catch the killer, and to make sure that justice is served.
00:15But what happens when the truth vanishes with the victim?
00:20I'm Dr Richard Shepard, and I've spent my entire career as a forensic pathologist, performing nearly 23,000 autopsies.
00:30I've learned that the dead don't hide the truth, and they never lie.
00:36Through me, you'll be hearing directly from the victim.
00:40With the aid of a state-of-the-art laboratory, using groundbreaking technology, I'll be investigating a series of intriguing
00:48crimes.
00:49Where, from the victim's bodies, I'll reveal to you the truth behind these murders.
00:59Little Venice in London is famous for the houseboats that make their way along the Grand Union Canal.
01:07But in May 2015, this picture-postcard location became a crime scene, when a member of the public made a
01:15shocking discovery.
01:24In the Little Venice area of West London, near to Paddington Railway Station, it's an area where quite a lot
01:30of people live on barges as their place of residence.
01:33And two people were in a canal boat and heard a noise against the side of their boat, which caused
01:40them to look outside, and they saw a suitcase in the canal.
01:46The two friends on that houseboat looked down into the water and saw distinctive red hair flowing out of it.
01:57They became very concerned and decided to call the police.
02:02Well, police obviously need to essentially find out what's happened, so being able to recover the suitcase from the canal,
02:09which is in itself a potentially quite challenging task, because it's in the water.
02:14So police have got to make a decision as to whether they enter the water or not.
02:18If they're able to actually reach and remove the item without entering the water, that is obviously safer.
02:23So they've got to consider that.
02:25Then also the actual weight of the suitcase, because at that point they don't know what's in the suitcase, and
02:30it's in a body of water, so it may well be full of water, which will add to the weight.
02:34Having retrieved the suitcase, police and forensic teams were shocked at what it contained.
02:42What was found in the suitcase was a body that had been placed essentially in the fetal position.
02:49The body was wrapped in bin bags and also a curtain was placed in the suitcase.
02:56When a body is found in a suitcase in a canal, that's a homicide.
03:00That's a suspicious death.
03:02The police immediately launched a murder investigation.
03:06The first thing that they will need to do is identify who that person is in the suitcase, because it'd
03:15be very difficult for the police to find out who killed them without knowing who they are.
03:22So the police looked to the body for answers.
03:27The body that was found in the canal was folded inside a suitcase.
03:31It was in the fetal position and wrapped in curtains and bin bags.
03:36There was no ID, no purse, no other obvious identification.
03:41But it's still possible for this body to reveal a lot of information.
03:46Even if the body is reduced to simply a skeleton, if you know how to read bones, you can get
03:51a lot of information from that.
03:52The age at death, the height, and from the shape of the pelvis, the sex of the individual.
03:59Some decomposition had set in, but the organs, tissues and skin were still largely intact, thanks to the cooler water
04:06temperature of the canal, which slowed down the rate of decomposition.
04:12So a body like this, where there is still soft tissue, has many more secrets it can reveal to a
04:18forensic pathologist.
04:19In the mortuary, the body can be measured and weighed, and the teeth can help determine the age too, since
04:26they erupt throughout life.
04:28For instance, the wisdom teeth appear in your twenties.
04:32In this case, the body had its wisdom teeth, and the shape of the pelvic bone indicated it was female.
04:39From all this, it could be determined with some certainty that she was a white woman, approximately 5 foot 2,
04:46weighing 8 stone.
04:48And it was clear that she was young, in her early twenties.
04:53But there was no missing persons report for anyone like that.
04:57So who was she?
05:01With little to go on, even forensic evidence proved limited.
05:08Ultimately, when somebody's body is in water, it's likely to remove things like DNA, opportunities to recover evidence.
05:17For me, the most important thing is to make an appeal via the media, via all forms of media, asking
05:23for witnesses to come forward,
05:25asking for people to report in anybody that they're concerned about,
05:30to try and work through opportunities to identify who the person is.
05:34Because once that's established, it opens up a vast array of other opportunities
05:39to identify if there are any other scenes that need to be cordoned and searched and examined.
05:46Because, for example, where she was actually placed into the water,
05:49if it was different to where the suitcase was found.
06:03Then detectives got a breakthrough.
06:06A man called Thomas Kochik contacted police to report his girlfriend missing.
06:11Kochik later identified the body as that of Marta Ligman.
06:20Journalist Henry Vaughan remembers the case well.
06:24I first heard about the case of Marta Ligman when her body was discovered in a suitcase in the Grand
06:31Union Canal.
06:32I was working as a court reporter at the time.
06:35It's a very unusual set of circumstances, so that is something that sticks in the mind.
06:42Marta Ligman came to the UK in 2012,
06:46and she worked in a delicatessen in Harlesden in northwest London.
06:49Very highly thought of by a boss, described as a very pleasant girl,
06:54with aspirations to get married, to have a family, to settle in the UK.
06:57By the very, very pleasant demeanour, very helpful and outgoing.
07:03She'd come over from Poland to the United Kingdom to live and work and make a life for herself.
07:11A very brave thing for her to have done, actually.
07:15She was very popular, had lots of friends, and well-liked by everyone who knew her.
07:23In London, Marta moved in with her Polish boyfriend, Tomasz Kuczyk,
07:28who she'd first met back in Poland.
07:32Marta met Kuczyk on an internet chat room.
07:38Both Polish nationals, so they formed a friendship, formed a relationship.
07:44Tomasz Kuczyk was quite a bit older than Marta, around 38 at the time.
07:49He was also from Poland and lived in London, working as a Falkcliffe truck driver.
07:55He'd also spent some time in Ireland before moving to the UK.
07:59That relationship then developed into what seemingly was a very, very affectionate, loving relationship,
08:07to the extent that Marta took the decision to move from her home in Poland to London,
08:13a big step for her, to set up home, really, with Tomasz Kuczyk.
08:23She probably went into that relationship feeling so happy, so excited,
08:29and she may even have fallen for him before they physically met.
08:33She may have fallen for him whilst they're still, you know, maybe talking online.
08:38At the start, they seemed to have a very good relationship, and she was very happy.
08:43Their neighbours said they seemed like a perfect couple,
08:46and also that Kuczyk seemed quite protective of Marta.
08:50Kuczyk was around 15 years older than Marta.
08:54He was a builder by trade,
08:57and came into this country purely for work purposes.
09:00He was a very caring person towards Marta.
09:03He was always concerned about her well-being, and he wanted to look after her.
09:08So they had a very happy and settled relationship.
09:12Marta wanted to get married. She wanted to have children.
09:14And she thought, when she met Kuczyk, that that was his dream as well.
09:19This is what I want, too.
09:21I want a wife. I want a family.
09:23I want children. I'm very traditional.
09:25So that would have played into everything that she wanted.
09:32To people from the outside, seemingly very happy.
09:36So how did this young woman's life end so tragically?
09:40Things can change literally overnight.
09:46In 2015, police launched a murder investigation
09:50after the body of 23-year-old Polish delicatessent worker,
09:55Marta Ligman was found folded into a suitcase
09:57and dumped in a London canal.
10:02When her body was found in a suitcase in the Grand Union Canal,
10:06it's a very unusual set of circumstances.
10:09So it was an immediately high-profile case.
10:13It's important to recognise that the location where Marta's body was found
10:17in the canal is not necessarily the same as the deposition site,
10:21i.e. where the suitcase entered the canal.
10:24And also, there may be other locations where events have taken place
10:28that would inform the investigation about the events that led to Marta's death.
10:32There were witnesses who had seen the suitcase in the canal
10:36and dismissed it without causing any suspicion in their minds about the suitcase.
10:41But it had travelled a significant distance
10:44to the point of Little Venice, where Marta's body was discovered.
10:49However, what may well be preserved,
10:52because of the fact that Marta is enclosed within the suitcase,
10:55is evidence of injuries or evidence that would be later informed
10:59the investigation as to how she died.
11:07The post-mortem showed she'd been in the canal for between seven and ten days.
11:13We can estimate this because the water in the canal,
11:17where Marta's body was found,
11:19would have been colder than the air temperature
11:21and therefore slowed down the decomposition of her body,
11:24making it easier to determine the exact time of death.
11:29We know that she was folded up very tightly in a small space
11:33with her knees up to her chest.
11:35This position would have limited movement of the ribcage
11:39and stopped air being drawn into her lungs.
11:43It would have been almost impossible
11:45to get her folded into that tight space unless she was immobile.
11:49But what we don't know is whether she was dead
11:53when she was put into the suitcase or just unconscious.
11:56And the terrible truth is that Marta might still have been alive
12:01when she was thrown into the canal.
12:10The most distressing detail that the pathologist could not rule out
12:14that Marta was not alive or dead when she was placed into the suitcase.
12:20In their hunt for the killer,
12:22police needed to eliminate the most obvious suspect from their inquiries,
12:27the man who'd first reported her missing,
12:29her boyfriend, Thomas Kochik.
12:33We know that the most likely person to kill any woman
12:38is their partner or ex-partner.
12:40So intimate partner homicide,
12:41that's where a man kills his partner or ex-partner,
12:46is actually the biggest category of homicide for women.
12:49So as soon as Marta is identified,
12:53Kochik is at the top of the list straight away.
12:58Kochik was 15 years older than Marta Lugman.
13:02And I think it's quite important just to consider
13:04that when they met online, Marta was a teenager.
13:08That is a bit of a red flag
13:10because statistically somebody much older
13:13than a woman especially
13:16is going to be targeting them
13:20because they are more malleable.
13:23They are more vulnerable.
13:25They're less experienced in life.
13:27So I think in terms of power imbalance
13:30and the dynamic within the relationship,
13:31he was likely to be more sort of influential
13:33in the way that things were within the relationship,
13:36which again could have affected
13:38the way that they live their lives together
13:41and subsequent events.
13:45There are extra risks, I think,
13:49to meeting somebody online.
13:52It's very easy to present yourself
13:54as something other than you actually are online.
13:57And it's very, very difficult to question any of that.
14:02And if you do those first few meetings online,
14:04by the time you are face-to-face with that person,
14:08you think you already know a lot about them.
14:11And so your instincts in that first face-to-face meeting
14:15will be very much dampened.
14:29Marta had lived in the UK for about three years
14:33and friends had noticed
14:35that Marta's behaviour had started to change,
14:37so she'd become quieter, more reserved.
14:39And some concerns generally were being noted
14:42by people that knew her
14:44or they felt that something was not quite right
14:47within the relationship.
14:49The changes in her started to happen quite quickly.
14:52She started to withdraw, she started to lose weight,
14:56she started being less happy,
14:58seeing less of her friends.
15:01And that concerned them.
15:05Kujic became very controlling
15:07and her friends said
15:08she wasn't the sort of happy-go-lucky person
15:11she used to be.
15:12Within three years,
15:13Kujic had also become obsessively jealous about Marta.
15:17As time developed during their relationship,
15:20things began to take a turn for the worse.
15:23His behaviour became more controlling,
15:25more coercive and even obsessive
15:27about Marta's movements and her whereabouts.
15:30And he was very intense about it.
15:32Every single thing she did,
15:34he was there, he was following her,
15:35he was tracking her, he was isolating her.
15:37And asking a lot of very searching questions
15:40and generally exhibiting an air of suspicion
15:44about the way that Marta was behaving
15:46without any grounds that I'm known of,
15:49but just a very controlling kind of approach
15:53taken by coaches at that time.
15:54He would turn up at her work.
15:58Every day he'd pick her up from her work
16:00because he didn't trust her.
16:01There's even one occasion where he demanded
16:04that the boss of the deli she worked in
16:06show him the CCTV to prove that she'd been working there.
16:10And that was quite concerning to her boss.
16:16The first control that always comes in
16:18is what we call jealousy code.
16:20So he would have been saying things like,
16:23don't like it when you talk to other men,
16:25makes me feel really, really jealous, don't do it.
16:27And she probably thought, oh, fair enough,
16:28I won't do that, I'm not going to wind him up.
16:31But there would have come a point
16:32where she did something to break that rule.
16:36Not on purpose.
16:39And he would have punished her for it.
16:41And that punishment will set the tone
16:43for everything that happens going forward.
16:52One of her friends recalled an occasion
16:55where Marta wore some very thick rimmed spectacles.
16:58And what the friend thought was to try to hide the fact
17:00that she had some facial bruising.
17:02This made everyone very concerned about Marta's well-being.
17:06The behaviour progressed to essentially monitoring Marta's behaviour,
17:12moving more towards what can generally be described
17:14as a controlling or coercive-type relationship.
17:18People who are controlling and who use coercive control
17:22are actually trying to trap you into a relationship with them.
17:27So that means that you can't get out of this relationship
17:31you've committed to me, you can never leave.
17:34To build the case against Kocik being the killer,
17:37police needed to know if Marta's body revealed signs
17:40of a controlling and abusive relationship.
17:43So what could Marta's body tell us
17:46about the final tragic hours of her life?
17:49When Marta's body was removed from the suitcase,
17:52it was evident she'd suffered a severe beating.
17:55She had numerous injuries to her face and her body
17:58that must have been inflicted in the hours
18:01before she was thrown into the canal.
18:03But she also had other injuries that were older.
18:07Bruises can be aged because they change colour over time,
18:11going from purple and blue to yellow and green,
18:14and finally to brown.
18:16Marta's body was covered in old and fresh bruises.
18:20But it's the fractures that are most revealing.
18:23A recent fracture looks like this,
18:25and here you can see the clear separation in the bones.
18:28But these broken ends will knit back together
18:31over a period of weeks and months.
18:34A Marta also had several healed fractures.
18:37So what her body revealed was that she had been subjected
18:41to a prolonged and savage attack immediately before her death.
18:46But it also showed that this was part of a long history
18:50of physical abuse.
18:52Older injuries would be consistent
18:54with what the friends had described
18:56in terms of there being a deterioration in the relationship
19:00and more violence being used towards Marta.
19:06Kujic used to play loud music in the flats,
19:09which is believed to have covered up him beating her.
19:15So I think she did something trivial
19:17or something that he made up,
19:19and he probably really, really hurt her.
19:23But that's a warning for the future.
19:25That's your punishment.
19:28It's what we call the three Cs.
19:31So it's control, challenge, consequence.
19:34So the control is in place, rules of the relationship.
19:37You will not make me jealous.
19:39There's some kind of challenge to that.
19:41Maybe she's caught speaking to somebody.
19:44What are the consequences?
19:46The third C, violence.
19:48Now, the consequences reinstate the control.
19:51She thinks, I'm never going to do that again.
19:53I am never going to speak to another man,
19:56or I'm just never going to do anything ever to upset this man
20:01because I'm not scared of him.
20:03She was literally trapped like a hostage
20:06in this relationship with him.
20:11There was still no hard evidence linking Kujic
20:14to the assaults or the murder,
20:16but Marta's phone messages were raising further suspicions
20:20among friends and colleagues.
20:31Her boss, the delicatessen, received a message
20:34basically to say that Marta was not going to attend work
20:36because her mum was sick in Poland and needed to leave,
20:40which was described as being out of character for Marta,
20:43that Marta would not have sent a message that way.
20:45She would have gone into the shop and explained.
20:47Also, messages were sent to Marta's friends
20:52to explain that she'd left Kujic,
20:55so there was quite an amount of communication
20:59from Marta's Facebook account and from her device.
21:05On Facebook Messenger,
21:08sending one of her friends over about 50 messages
21:12they exchanged between them,
21:15and the friends initially believed she was talking to Marta,
21:19but she became suspicious
21:20when the messages began to start suggesting a threesome.
21:24The level of conduct and the content of the communication
21:28caused some alarm to Marta's friend
21:31as it also included activity
21:34about engaging in sexual conduct together.
21:39Marta's friend clearly thought
21:41this was uncharacteristic of Marta,
21:44and it raised alarm bells in her head.
21:46She went straight to her home address
21:48to see if she was OK,
21:50but nobody was at home.
22:01In London, in May 2015,
22:04the body of 23-year-old Marta Ligman
22:07was found folded up in a suitcase
22:09floating in London's Grand Canal.
22:11The post-mortem revealed bruises and fractures,
22:15proving that she'd been subjected
22:17to a long history of physical abuse.
22:20The prime suspect was her boyfriend,
22:23Tomasz Kujic.
22:25Messages sent from Marta's phone and computer
22:27before her body was found
22:29suggested she had left her boyfriend
22:31and returned to Poland.
22:33But these didn't seem in character.
22:36Friends and family feared she was missing.
22:39It's quite common for Marta
22:40to speak to a mum on a very regular basis,
22:43if not daily.
22:44So obviously Marta wasn't doing that.
22:47Her lack of contact with friends and family,
22:49again, against her demeanour,
22:52uncharacteristic of Marta
22:54not to speak to her mother every day.
22:57Marta's mum made contact with Thomas Kujic
23:00to establish what had happened
23:01and he explained that Marta had left him,
23:04which also fitted with messages
23:07that were being sent
23:09purporting to be from Marta.
23:12But once Marta's body was found,
23:15it became clear to police
23:16that she could not have sent those messages.
23:19She was already dead in the canal.
23:22The only person with access to Marta's devices
23:25to send messages was Kujic.
23:29Kujic made contact using Marta's Facebook account.
23:33He messaged one of her friends.
23:35The messaging was uncharacteristic of Marta.
23:38It alerted her friend immediately
23:40that potentially there could be a problem.
23:43So there was a clear attempt by Kujic
23:47to mislead a number of people that knew Marta
23:50and were clearly going to ask questions
23:51about where she was.
23:52He was just trying to make it all go away,
23:56stop anyone reporting her missing
23:59and maybe give himself some time to think.
24:04In creating this kind of web of lies,
24:08trying to convince everybody maybe
24:10that Marta's still alive
24:11so that he stops people coming to look for her
24:15because he knows his name is going to be at the top of the list
24:17if she is found and identified.
24:22Kujic didn't report Marta missing
24:24and despite her mother phoning him
24:27and asking him to look for her
24:30and ask what he was doing to try and trace her,
24:34he didn't report her missing until her body was found,
24:37which was around 10 days later.
24:46This case attracted heavy media attention
24:48and as a result of that,
24:51Kujic was alerted to the fact
24:52that Marta's body has been found
24:54and that was the point
24:56that he contacted the police
24:57to report her as missing.
24:59In fact, members of her family
25:01had tried to ask him to report her as missing
25:04previous to the date of her body being discovered.
25:08Kujic simply refused to do so.
25:12The fact that he hadn't reported a missing
25:14until Marta's body was found in the canal
25:16clearly caused suspicion
25:18and ultimately led to the arrest of Kujic
25:21as a suspect for Marta's murder.
25:25But under police questioning,
25:28Kujic denied murdering Marta.
25:31He did not accept that he killed Marta
25:34and denied his involvement in the murder of Marta.
25:37The explanation that Kujic gave
25:39was that he had come home from work
25:41and found Marta dead.
25:43He thought that Marta had had a heart attack
25:45because he and Marta had been taking amphetamines
25:49in the preceding days.
25:50Kujic was fearful
25:51that he would be in trouble with the police
25:54for providing her with those drugs.
25:56His version of events was that he panicked.
25:59They'd been involved in rough sex activity
26:01as he described it
26:02and he felt that those things combined
26:04would cause him to be blamed effectively for her death.
26:11But did Marta's body support Kujic's version of events?
26:15Kujic claimed that Marta had died from an amphetamine overdose
26:19following days of drug-fuelled bondage sessions.
26:22And although internal swabs were taken,
26:25there was no evidence of recent sexual activity.
26:28Amphetamines can be detected in the bloodstream
26:31for, on average, 48 hours after being consumed
26:34and on human hair as long as 90 days afterwards.
26:40Some amphetamine users take the drug
26:42through what is called skin popping.
26:45These are subcutaneous injections
26:47that go into the tissue rather than the blood vessels.
26:50And what we would see then
26:52is lots of ulcerated areas on the legs and forearms.
26:56But there was no evidence of this on Marta's body.
27:00If she was injecting, there would be track marks
27:04and there was no evidence of that either.
27:07He said that he came home and found Marta dead on the sofa
27:12and she had problems and she was taking drugs
27:15and she'd obviously overdosed.
27:17The most classic way to defend yourself
27:20against killing somebody you're supposed to love
27:22is to denigrate them in some way
27:24and make them responsible
27:26and make you the innocent victim of their awful behaviour.
27:30And that's what he did.
27:38Gochik did, however, admit disposing of Marta's body.
27:43Eventually, as the evidence unfolded
27:45and was presented to him and his legal team,
27:48he changed his version of events.
27:50He admitted that he did conceal her body in the suitcase.
27:56He confessed to the police
27:58that what he then did was place Marta into the suitcase.
28:02He walked down a distance of about half a mile
28:04and placed the suitcase in the Grand Union Canal
28:08near to Scrubs Lane.
28:09The suitcase then travelled
28:11in the direction of Little Venice
28:13down the canal for a significant period of time.
28:20Scrubs Lane is about two and a half,
28:23maybe three miles from the Little Venice site
28:26where Marta's body was ultimately found.
28:33As a result of Kochik's account,
28:35one of the things that the police will do
28:37is check and try and corroborate an account that's given.
28:40That could include CCTV.
28:42The CCTV revealed that Kochik had walked
28:45from the home address to the Grand Union Canal,
28:49a distance of about half a mile.
28:59He was seen wheeling the suitcase
29:01on his way to the canal
29:03along a number of streets,
29:05past commuters towards the canal,
29:09carrying this heavy suitcase,
29:11which was so heavy on CCTV,
29:13you could see that the wheels were buckling.
29:19He'd also taken a stick with him
29:20in an attempt to submerge the suitcase.
29:25And then shortly after that,
29:26he was seen again walking back towards his home address,
29:29this time without the suitcase,
29:31but from the waist down,
29:33it was noticed on the CCTV
29:35he appeared to be wet,
29:37which would be consistent with the fact
29:38that he had been in the canal,
29:41seeking to dispose of the suitcase
29:42in the way that he described.
29:45This man didn't have many resources.
29:49He didn't appear to have a vehicle.
29:51I think if he had a vehicle,
29:52he might not have chosen the canal.
29:56Throwing a body into a canal
29:58is a high-risk strategy
30:00because bodies tend to be found
30:03when they're in bodies of water
30:05that are quite small.
30:07While CCTV footage confirmed Kocik's story
30:11that he'd disposed of the body,
30:13there was more to come.
30:19With that extra understanding
30:22of what the events were confirmed now by the CCTV,
30:25that enabled the police to search areas
30:27where they knew that Kocik had travelled,
30:30and that led to the recovery
30:32of identity documents belonging to Marta.
30:36Of great significance
30:38was that on route to and from the canal,
30:42Marta's identification card
30:43was found damaged and burnt.
30:46Again, evidence of Kocik
30:48trying to conceal her identification
30:51from the police.
30:52And that confirmed
30:54and corroborated and supported
30:56the understanding of what had taken place
30:59in Marta's death.
31:01With evidence that Kocik
31:03had tried to conceal Marta's identity,
31:06police charged him with murder.
31:12I've prosecuted a number of homicide cases
31:15over the years,
31:16but this case particularly stands out
31:19in my time on the homicide unit.
31:22The court case was a particularly horrifying one.
31:26The prosecutor warned the jury
31:29that they were going to hear
31:30some horrendous details,
31:32and particularly the detail
31:34that she still may be alive
31:36when she went into the water.
31:41In May 2015,
31:43Tomasz Kocik was charged
31:45with the murder
31:45of his girlfriend Marta Ligman.
31:47Her body had been found
31:49in the Grand Union Canal
31:50earlier in the year
31:51after a boat owner
31:53spotted human hair
31:54coming out of a suitcase
31:56floating in the water.
31:58The post-mortem revealed
32:00a history of domestic violence,
32:02but whilst her boyfriend
32:04admitted disposing of her body,
32:06he denied murder.
32:08He claimed she had died
32:10of a drug overdose.
32:12Pathology proved
32:13that was a lie.
32:19Five months after his arrest,
32:22Kocik was brought
32:23before the Old Bailey in London.
32:26Representing the case
32:27for the Crown Prosecution Service
32:29was Senior Prosecutor Devi Karan.
32:34I had been working
32:35on this case for a long time
32:37to prepare the case
32:38to present it at trial.
32:41A homicide prosecution
32:42requires a lot of preparation.
32:45We have to find
32:46as much evidence as possible
32:48to prove every element
32:50of the offence of murder
32:52beyond reasonable doubt
32:54to prove that Kocik
32:56was the killer of Marta.
33:00It was a very intense atmosphere
33:02in the courtroom.
33:03There was a lot of press
33:04and media attention
33:05surrounding this case.
33:08I attended court
33:10when he faced trial.
33:11It was one I covered
33:13from start to finish.
33:15The case of Marta
33:17was a very harrowing case.
33:19Just the details
33:20of the injury she suffered.
33:24The prosecutor warned the jury
33:28that they were going to hear
33:29some horrendous details.
33:33It was very distressing
33:34for friends and family
33:36to have to come to court
33:38and listen to the distressing details
33:40that were presented
33:41about Marta's life.
33:47The prosecution
33:48outlined the case
33:50against Kocik.
33:52We relied on the strength
33:54of the evidence
33:54to present a clear
33:56and coherent case
33:57to the jury.
33:58The evidence consisted
34:00of various strands
34:01including CCTV evidence
34:03to prove his movements
34:05at the time of her killing.
34:07Evidence of her identity card
34:10that was found burnt
34:12and damaged
34:13and the pathological evidence
34:16that gave the police
34:18the indication
34:19as to how Marta's injuries
34:21were sustained.
34:23He clearly ruled out
34:25natural causes
34:26as a result of her death.
34:29The court also heard
34:31how the obsessive
34:32and violent Kocik
34:33behaved towards Marta.
34:36We used the evidence
34:38of her friends and family
34:39who provided strong evidence
34:41of a change of demeanour
34:43in Marta.
34:44Her behaviour had changed.
34:46She became withdrawn,
34:47sad.
34:48She had visible facial injuries
34:50which caused her friends
34:52and her manager
34:53significant concern
34:55about Kocik's controlling
34:56and coercive behaviour.
34:59A man like Kocik
35:00is going to want somebody
35:02like Marta
35:02to fall for him.
35:03So he's going to present himself
35:05as the perfect boyfriend.
35:08You've met the one
35:09and he would use
35:12all his manipulative skills
35:14in doing that.
35:16Trouble with people
35:17like Kocik is
35:18they can do that
35:20for a while
35:20they can't keep it up
35:23so they have to get
35:24that commitment
35:25from somebody like Marta
35:26very, very quickly
35:28because they know
35:29it's all going to fall apart
35:30they know that their true self
35:32is going to come out
35:33very, very quickly.
35:35Kocik is such
35:36an extreme example
35:38of a fixated,
35:39obsessed
35:40and very insecure man.
35:43He was entitled
35:44I own you
35:45you're my property
35:46don't you dare
35:48try and leave me
35:49because you will pay.
35:52Kocik himself
35:53decided not to take the stand
35:55but his legal team
35:56presented his version
35:57of events.
36:04Kocik claims
36:05he'd returned home
36:06from work
36:07to find Marta
36:09already dead.
36:10He said that
36:11he believed Marta
36:13had died of a heart attack
36:14and thought
36:15he would get blamed.
36:19anybody who's in court
36:21is going to try
36:23and defend themselves
36:24they don't
36:24they don't want
36:25to go to prison
36:26and this
36:26this has got a life sentence
36:28on the end of it.
36:29He had to have a story
36:31for Marta being dead
36:33so he picks
36:34another
36:35implausible story
36:36that
36:37Marta was a drug addict
36:39and she had been
36:40taking drugs
36:41denigrating the victim
36:43and making them
36:43the bad person
36:44and you the victim
36:45that is incredibly common.
36:49The pathology
36:51had conclusively
36:52proved drugs
36:53played no part
36:54in Marta's death.
36:56Kocik's case
36:56was falling apart.
37:00So his whole defence
37:02at court
37:03that he just
37:04found her dead
37:05and for some reason
37:06decided to put her
37:07into a suitcase
37:08instead of
37:08phoning the paramedics
37:09I mean it's all
37:10absolutely ridiculous
37:12and this was not
37:14a sophisticated defence
37:16he's in a position now
37:18where he's proven
37:18to be
37:19a liar.
37:22Kocik
37:23while in court
37:24he didn't show
37:25any remorse at all
37:26he
37:27was
37:28very
37:28cocky
37:31and
37:31the lies he told
37:33were very distressing
37:35for Marta's family
37:36claiming that
37:37that this had happened
37:40during rough sex
37:41and that she'd
37:44been taking drugs
37:45with him.
37:48And obviously distressing
37:50for her friends and family
37:51to see Kocik
37:52in the dock.
37:53In every homicide case
37:54that we prosecute
37:55we have the opportunity
37:56of meeting
37:57the victim's families.
37:59Marta's mother
38:00did provide
38:01a victim impact statement
38:02which was
38:04very
38:04very
38:05sad.
38:07She was very tearful
38:08she told
38:08how she was
38:09begging this man
38:11to help
38:12look for her
38:13when all along
38:14he was the one
38:15who killed her.
38:16The texts
38:17Kocik sent
38:18to Marta's friends
38:19were also read
38:20out in court.
38:23Kocik
38:23sent messages
38:25to Marta's friends
38:27to suggest
38:28that
38:29she was still alive
38:30he wanted to make it look
38:32like she'd left him
38:34and when her mother
38:36was begging him
38:38to look for her
38:39but he pretended
38:41that she'd just run away
38:43and didn't want to get
38:44in touch with him.
38:45Initially
38:46the evidence
38:47from the telephones
38:49went against
38:50the prosecution case
38:51because the evidence
38:53showed that Marta's
38:54telephone was used
38:56after the prosecution
38:57say her body
38:58was placed
38:59in the canal.
39:00However
39:01at trial
39:02that evidence
39:04assisted the case
39:05for the prosecution
39:06because it proved
39:08that in fact
39:09her phone
39:09was being used
39:10by Kocik
39:11to create
39:12a false trail
39:13for the officers.
39:16Kocik had proved
39:17to be a calculated
39:18controlling liar
39:20but it was Marta's body
39:21that would deliver
39:22the irrefutable evidence
39:24of her final moments.
39:27The autopsy revealed
39:29that sometime
39:29between the evening
39:30of the 29th of April
39:32and the 1st of May
39:33Kocik beat Marta
39:35unconscious
39:36in a sustained attack
39:37that could have lasted
39:39minutes or hours
39:40or possibly even days.
39:42When he thought
39:43she was dead
39:44he wrapped her
39:45in curtains
39:46and bin bags
39:47and stuffed her
39:48into a suitcase
39:49with her head
39:50between her knees.
39:50He then dragged
39:52the case
39:53half a mile
39:54to the canal
39:54before dumping
39:55her in the water.
39:57So how did Marta
39:59actually die?
40:00The widespread
40:01heavy bruising
40:02tells us all
40:03about her last hours.
40:05A bruise
40:06is just blood
40:07leaking from
40:08damaged blood vessels
40:09but it requires
40:10pressure in the bloodstream
40:12for that leakage
40:13to occur.
40:14Marta's body
40:15was just covered
40:16in bruises
40:17and it was quite clear
40:18that this could
40:19only have happened
40:21if her heart
40:23was still beating.
40:25Although she was alive
40:27when she received
40:28these injuries
40:28it was the repetitive
40:30blunt force trauma
40:32to her torso
40:33and legs
40:33that killed her.
40:38It's not clear
40:39exactly at what point
40:40that took place
40:41but that could have
40:42taken place
40:43while she was
40:44in the suitcase
40:46either when
40:47Kosic was walking
40:49down towards the canal
40:50or indeed after
40:51the suitcase
40:51had been placed
40:52in the canal
40:52which clearly raises
40:54the possibility
40:54that Marta
40:55was still alive
40:56at either of those points.
41:00Some of the
41:01expert evidence
41:02showed that
41:03some of the bruising
41:04on her body
41:05could have been caused
41:06by her being hit
41:07by a boat
41:08while she was still
41:08alive in that suitcase.
41:12He warned the jury
41:14not to think
41:15of the possibilities
41:16around that.
41:17Obviously it's hard
41:18not to.
41:20Something happened
41:21for him to think
41:23that she was dead.
41:25I don't think
41:26that he thought
41:27by putting her
41:28in a suitcase
41:28that would kill her.
41:29I think he put her
41:30in the suitcase
41:31because he thought
41:31she was dead.
41:32He probably
41:34at that point
41:35wasn't thinking straight.
41:36He just knew
41:37he needed to get rid
41:38of Marta's body.
41:42The thing is
41:42with people
41:43like Kosic,
41:45they use violence
41:46routinely.
41:47They know how far
41:48to go.
41:49They absolutely
41:50do know how far
41:51to go.
41:51The idea that
41:52they take it too far
41:53one day
41:54and kill someone,
41:55really,
41:56there's not a lot
41:57to support that.
41:58They know when to stop.
41:59I think whatever
42:00the challenge was
42:01that came from Marta,
42:04it was enough
42:05that he took it
42:05far enough
42:06to kill her,
42:07given himself
42:08permission to kill her,
42:09in fact,
42:10and thought
42:11that he had done
42:12exactly that.
42:13The jury saw
42:14through Kosic's lies.
42:16The pathology
42:17was damning.
42:19After deliberating
42:20for just over a day,
42:22they rejected
42:23his defence.
42:25Thomas Kosic
42:26was found guilty
42:28of Marta's murder.
42:30He was convicted
42:32of murder
42:32and he was sentenced
42:33to 18 and a half years
42:35as a minimum
42:36sentence recommendation
42:37of his life sentence.
42:42Kosic was a very violent
42:44and dangerous man.
42:47At trial,
42:48Kosic,
42:48from my recollection,
42:50showed no remorse.
42:51He maintained
42:52a very cold demeanour
42:53as he sat in the dock
42:55at the Old Bailey.
42:56After the jury
42:57had delivered
42:57their verdict,
42:59we were very satisfied
43:01that we had secured
43:03justice for Marta,
43:05her family
43:06and her friends.
43:07And that
43:08is of paramount importance
43:11in any homicide case.
43:13I think this case
43:15was a classic
43:16intimate partner,
43:18homicide,
43:19very quick,
43:21very intense.
43:22in some ways
43:24it was different
43:25because Kosic
43:27was so extreme
43:30in his control
43:31of Marta
43:32and I think
43:33everybody noticed
43:34the changes in her
43:36so you could
43:37almost watch this
43:40playing out
43:40from a distance.
43:43She's obviously
43:44been in a very abusive
43:46relationship.
43:47He was very
43:48controlling of her
43:49and instead
43:51of breaking up
43:52with her,
43:53allowing her
43:53to go her own way,
43:54he'd brutally
43:55beaten her
43:56and stuffed her
43:57into a suitcase
43:58and dumped her
43:59into a canal.
43:59Absolutely horrific.
44:02I've prosecuted
44:03a number of homicide cases
44:04over the years
44:05but this case
44:07particularly stands out
44:08in my time
44:10on the homicide unit.
44:12Marta Ligman
44:13was a young,
44:14happy,
44:15very kind
44:17and caring
44:17young lady
44:18who wanted to come
44:20to London
44:20to start a new life.
44:22The truth
44:23of what happened
44:24that night
44:25was that
44:26Marta
44:27was subjected
44:27to a violent
44:28and brutal attack
44:30by the man
44:31who she loved
44:33and cared for.
44:37That particular point
44:39where Marta's body
44:40was discovered
44:41is a part of the canal
44:43in Little Venice
44:43that I visit frequently
44:45and every time
44:46I visit that point
44:48at the canal
44:49I always stop
44:50and think about Marta.
44:56Tomasz Kujic
44:57had mentally
44:58and physically
44:59controlled Marta
45:00throughout their relationship.
45:02It ended
45:02with her murder.
45:05He tried
45:05to claim
45:06that Marta
45:07had died
45:07of a drug overdose
45:08and that he was
45:09innocent of her killing
45:11but the pathologist's report
45:13made sure
45:14the jury
45:14saw through his lies.
45:17Although she never
45:18spoke out in life
45:19in death
45:20her body
45:21was able
45:21to reveal
45:22the truth
45:22about what had happened
45:24and put Kujic
45:26behind bars.
45:30never
45:30to be
45:43thought of her
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