Rzeszowski family homicides

On 14 August 2011, in Saint Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, Damian Rzeszowski killed six people: his father-in-law Marek Garstka, his wife Izabela Rzeszowski, his two children Kacper and Kinga, and a neighbour and her five-year-old daughter, Marta and Julia, who had been invited over for a barbeque. Damian Rzeszowski was born in Nowy Sącz, Poland, in 1980. He met Izabela Garstka, and in 2004 the couple moved to Jersey to live with her father, Marek Garstka. They married in 2005 and had two children, Kinga and Kacper.

In the months before the killings, Izabela confessed to a two-month affair; Damian disclosed a one-night stand of his own in response. On 19 July 2011 he took an overdose of anti-depressants and was hospitalised overnight before being discharged. According to his family, a failed property deal in Poland, in which he had already paid a developer around 50,000 PLN, also contributed to his mental state; his father held power of attorney in that matter. The family then spent their final weeks together on what was described as a reconciliation holiday in Poland, during which Damian had sex with a prostitute. He had a documented history of violence and alcohol abuse, including several fights since moving to Jersey.

On the day of the killings, the family had just returned from Poland and invited neighbour Marta and her daughter Julia for a barbeque. Around 3pm, Damian armed himself with two kitchen knives. He stabbed Marek Garstka nine times as he lay on a couch, then stabbed his son Kacper 16 times and both girls 13 times each in the living room. Izabela fled the flat and was pursued down the street in view of neighbours; she tried to call emergency services but dialled the Polish emergency number in error and was stabbed to death outside as neighbours attempted to intervene using traffic cones. Marta's body was later found on a neighbour's doorstep. The attack lasted approximately 15 minutes, and police arrived around five minutes after it ended. Rzeszowski then stabbed himself repeatedly in the chest and collapsed with a punctured lung.

He was arrested in hospital following emergency surgery and was later held at Broadmoor Hospital. He denied the six murders but pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, and on 29 October 2012 he was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment for each victim, to run concurrently. On 31 March 2018, he died by hanging at HMP Full Sutton, a high-security prison in Yorkshire. An inquest in April 2023 found failings in his care, including an unjustified extended stay in a segregation unit, absence of a required mental health care plan, conflicting staff records about his mental state, and a delay in calling an ambulance; the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman also criticised the failure to use an interpreter when informing his family in Poland of his death.