A mother 'murdered' her year-old baby in the culmination of an ‘entrenched pattern of abuse, neglect and mistreatment’, a court heard today.
Kinga Wydrzynska’s pregnancy with little Isabella was ‘both not wanted and hidden’, jurors heard, and the child spent the first few months of her life in the care of foster parents.
She was killed less than nine months after she was returned to Wydrzynska and co-defendant Michal Stasiak, the infant’s father. Jurors heard he had a 'gambling habit'.
The court heard Isabella suffered a full face burn and her mother recorded a 'self-pitying' selfie as her child lay 'clearly lifeless'.
The Polish nationals were ‘in a relationship’ and lived with Isabella in Rugby, Warwickshire, the court heard, although Stasiak, 28, left the house to live in a nearby flat three-and-a-half weeks before the child’s death, after Wydrzynska alleged he had assaulted her.
Prosecutor Annabel Darlow KC told the court Wydrzynska called 999 in the early hours of January 7 2025 saying she had found her daughter with 'foam' coming out of her mouth. Police arrived minutes later to find Isabella ‘grey and lifeless’.
Miss Darlow said: ‘Her skull had been fractured and she had a subdural haemorrhage, where blood gathers between the brain and the protective layers of the brain.
‘She had multiple bruises, her ribs were fractured and her right arm had been broken. Isabella also had a large burn covering her entire face. Not all of these injuries had been caused to the baby on the same occasion.
‘The evidence shows that Isabella had been seriously hurt on different occasions over a period of at least five weeks before her death and that this abuse had culminated in the extremely serious head injuries which caused her death.’
Kinga Wydrzynska allegedly murdered daughter Isabella after a period of physical and sexual abuse
Michael Stasiak is on trial accused of counts including causing or allowing the death of his baby daughter
Warwick Crown Court heard that Isabella was taken to hospital after being found by police, where she was pronounced dead that morning.
Miss Darlow said it was the Crown’s case that Wydrzynska murdered Isabella and was the person who caused the head injuries to her daughter, who was just over 12-months old at the time of her death.
She said Wydrzynska was ‘the only adult present’ when the head injuries were caused and added: ‘Far from being an isolated occurrence of harm to the little girl, those injuries were the devastating culmination of systemic physical abuse of Isabella.’
Medical experts concluded Isabella died due to injuries consistent with a forceful impact to her head, and separately, that her head had been shaken causing injury in the 12 hours leading up to her death.
The court heard that prior to death, the infant had also been subjected to physical and sexual abuse and neglect at the hands of both parents.
Miss Darlow said: ‘The prosecution say that by the time of Isabella’s death, there was an entrenched pattern of abuse, neglect and mistreatment of the little girl, of which both parents were entirely aware.
‘Both defendants knew, or ought to have known, that there was a significant risk of serious physical harm being caused to Isabella, yet failed to take any steps to protect Isabella from that risk.’
The prosecutor said Wydrzynska ‘did not tell her sister that she was pregnant’ with Isabella until shortly before the birth and ‘managed to conceal the pregnancy under baggy clothing’.
Isabella was taken into care and looked after by foster carers until April 2024 when she was returned to live with her parents, sleeping in a ‘flimsy’ travel cot in a cluttered room.
Miss Darlow told jurors that before Wydrzynska dialled 999 she recorded two videos on her phone with the camera 'mainly focussed' on her but sometimes showing Isabella.
She said Isabella was 'clearly lifeless' in the recordings, in which Wydrzynska spoke in Polish and claimed her daughter had been 'burned with some tap water'.
The prosecutor said the video showed her doing nothing to help her daughter and said Wydrzynska indulged 'in a monologue laced with self-pity in which she fusses about camera angles'.
The court heard Wydrzynska grew up in Poland and moved to the UK seven years ago. She met Stasiak when she took a job at a Tesco warehouse in Crick, Northamptonshire, where he was working as a truck driver.
Urging the jury to approach the evidence ‘objectively, calmly and dispassionately’, Miss Darlow warned it was inevitable they will find the evidence in the case ‘extremely distressing’.
Wydrzynska is charged with murder.
Both defendants, of Rugby, Warwickshire, are charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, four counts of causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child, two counts of sexual assault of a girl under the age of 13, three counts of child cruelty.
The defendants have denied all the charges.
The trial continues.