A man with a horror obsession who murdered and dismembered his elderly housemate before scattering his body parts across their home city has been jailed for life.
“Cold-blooded” killer Marcin Majerkiewicz, 42, bludgeoned his friend Stuart Everett, 67, with a hammer at the house they shared in Winton, Salford, in March last year.
The 42-year-old then used a hacksaw to dismember the pensioner into 27 pieces as well as flaying the face off the skull of his victim, who was described as a jolly, friendly, mild-mannered man.
Majerkiewicz, a Polish father-of-two with his Polish ex-partner, then took body parts in plastic bags on bus journeys across Salford and Manchester to dump the evidence, leaving remains all around Manchester.
The defendant had an obsession with gore and gruesome horror as well as a tattoo of slasher-film character Jason from Friday The 13th.
Majerkiewicz was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 34 years at Manchester Crown Court on Friday.
Jurors convicted him of murder last week in under two hours of deliberations following a three-week trial at the same court. He had denied responsibility for the killing but offered no evidence in his defence.
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.”
The court heard Majerkiewicz 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.
Former civil servant Mr Everett was murdered overnight between 27 and 28 March last year – but police were only alerted after a torso was found at Kersal Dale nature reserve in Salford on 4 April.
Officers scoured CCTV from the area and discovered that two days before, a man entered the wooded area carrying a heavy blue bag and emerging shortly after without it.
Footage showed the man carrying a bag for life down Bury New Road in Prestwich, visibly struggling and seen passing the bag between his hands and taking time to rest. The weight of what later emerged to be human remains was found to be around 18kg.
The man’s identity was initially 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 subsequently arrested.
When police searched his address, 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.
