Three Polish nationals accused of murdering a 23-year-old Bath Spa University business graduate for money have been convicted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court and given mandatory life sentences with minimum jail terms of 32 years.
Rafal Nowak (cheating Polish factory worker),31, Anna Lagwinowicz (secret lover),32, and Tadevsz Dmytryszyn (uncle),38, murdered Catherine Wells-Burr with a well-devised plot to claim her $192,525 life insurance and her half-share in a $214,439 two-bedroom house in Chard, Somerset.
The murder had all the classic ingredients- jealously, greed and revenge; and was planned months in advance through secret meetings and phone calls between Nowak and Lagwinowicz, during which Wells-Burr was ignorant that she was trapped in a love triangle.
Nowak and Lagwinowicz, had been in a two-year secret relationship unknown to Wells-Burr and met frequently to conspire to murder Wells-Burr. The police believe they met on 87 occasions to plot the murder.
Last September, Nowak suffocated Wells-Burr with a pillow in her sleep in their home in Somerset. Meanwhile, Lagwinowicz and Dmytryszyn disposed Wells-Burr's body in the countryside. They put her body in the driver's seat and set fire to the car.
They set the fire to the car 20 minutes after Nowak checked into work at Numatic International, attempting to mislead the police.
After months of false leads, the police found a badly burned body of Wells-Burr in her burnt-out car on the morning of September 12 at Ashill, near Chard.
All the Polish defendants denied any wrongdoing on their part but they were found guilty following a seven-week trial. Nowak, who continued to cheat with Lagwinowicz while courting Wells-Burr, failed to provide a satisfactory answer to his girlfriend's death.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Sharp stated that the murder was "a dreadful, pitiless crime committed in cold blood in grotesque breach of trust". The judge said that Lagwinowicz was involved in the crime to seek revenge for being dumped by Nowak for his English girlfriend.
"It was all about money. Nowak and Catherine had no ties: they were not married. There were no children. The murder of Catherine was motivated by money, selfishness and greed, and, in the case of Lagwinowicz, by a twisted jealousy and a desire for revenge," Sharp said.
'Rafal Nowak, the images of you leading Catherine by the hand the evening before her death buying items for what you knew was her last meal are utterly chilling. Your only emotions have been for yourself."
'Anna Lagwinowicz, your conduct has been deceitful, manipulative and cruel. You played your full part in this wicked crime. So did you Tadevsz Dmytryszyn.
'This was a murder with the expectation of gain. There were significant aggravating factors and no mitigation.'
None of the defendants showed any emotion while the sentence was being announced. Nowak, who has a wife and teenage son in his native Poland, met Wells-Burr, three years ago, when she was working on the production line at the Numatic factory in her summer holiday.
