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Killer Dumped Girlfriend In Canal In Suitcase

Killer Dumped Girlfriend In Canal In Suitcase

A man whose girlfriend may have been alive when he stuffed her into a suitcase and threw her into a canal has been jailed for life for her murder.

Forklift truck driver Tomasz Kocik, of Harlesden, north-west London, was convicted at the Old Bailey of murdering 23-year-old Marta Ligman between 28 April and 10 May this year.

Jailing him for a minimum of 18 years and six months, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said the evidence showed Miss Ligman had suffered a "severe beating" at his hands.

He went on: "Some time before 6am on 1 May this year you folded her up in a suitcase. She must have at least been unconscious.

"Dead or dying you then treated her body in a grotesque and demeaning way hauling her in a suitcase down to the canal and carrying a stick to try to submerge the case when you got there.

"Your actions were carefully considered and designed at all times to help you to get away with murder if you could."

The court had heard how the 5ft 2in Polish delicatessen worker had met her Polish boyfriend online through a dating chatline while living at home in Poland and had come to live with him in Britain.

Prosecutor Tim Cray said the forklift truck driver was considered to be an "obsessively jealous, controlling, boyfriend" who was violent toward Ms Ligman.

Kocik, 38, was caught on CCTV early in the morning of 1 May dragging a large, dark, "extremely heavy" suitcase half a mile from his home to the canal towpath before returning home more than an hour later, with his trousers wet.

Ms Ligman's body was discovered 10 days later when the suitcase - with her red hair streaming out of it - was spotted by people on a houseboat.

Her Polish identity card and bank card was later found cut up and burned along the route Kocik had taken with the suitcase.

Miss Ligman's relatives had been "very worried" when they had not heard from her and urged Kocik to report her missing to the police - he did not do that for several days until the discovery of her body was reported in the news.

In court, Kocik had claimed tearfully that he had found his girlfriend dead at his flat after days of amphetamine fuelled bondage sex sessions.

It took just over a day of deliberation before the jury rejected his explanation.