A man has pleaded guilty to stabbing a mother to death in her home while her children were asleep and her husband, who was away on business, listened helplessly on the phone.
Nicola Cross was killed by a Polish car mechanic, Marcin Porczynski, who “smashed his way into the house” on the night of 14 September last year and stabbed her 10 times in the torso.
St Albans crown court heard that he had paranoid schizophrenia and may have been hearing voices in the two years before the killing. After stabbing the 37-year-old, he tried to leave her Hemel Hempstead house with the two children.
Porczynksi, 24, who had moved to the UK in 2014, was charged with murder, two counts of kidnap, burglary of a neighbour’s house and aggravated burglary involving a weapon of offence, namely a knife.
He pleaded not guilty to the five counts but guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility.
Fourteen members of Cross’s family were present in court including her husband, Daniel, her sister and her mother.
Daniel Cross said in a victim impact statement read out to the court: “I see no future happiness, I see no end to this trauma until my own life comes to an end.”
He added: “When Marcin Porczynski killed Nik, he killed one person, but destroyed numerous other lives.”
Porczynski has been detained in Rampton high security hospital and will be sentenced on Monday. The court heard that Porczynski had no previous mental health record, and neither he nor his family knew he had an illness.
The court heard that traces of cocaine and cannabis were found in his blood, but the prosecution psychiatrist did not believe this had any bearing on the incident.
Cross, who died defending her children, had phoned the police 30 minutes earlier after Porczynski “banged on her door” and she refused to let him in. Officers arrived and searched him, and although he “appeared distant” they concluded there was no reason to detain him.
Terrified, Cross phoned her husband, who was away on business in Hull, again as Porczynski broke into the house. “She was on her phone to her husband again saying how worried he was when the defendant broke in. She said she heard a noise and told her husband to hold on while she went to investigate,” said Christopher Donnellan QC, prosecuting.
“He heard her screaming: ‘Get out of my house, what do you want?’ He then heard further screaming: ‘You don’t need to do this.’ Then her husband heard a male voice saying: ‘I do, I do.’ After a further very loud scream it went quiet.”
The court heard that Cross would have been unconscious in seconds.
Daniel Cross said in his statement: “I was on the phone before, during and after. That phone call plays over and over in my head, along with Nik’s screams and her pleading for her life. I will never forgive myself for not being there to protect her. I am totally and utterly heartbroken.”
He said that before his wife’s death his family’s life had been “almost sickeningly perfect”. They had 11 years of being totally in love and “to top it off we had two beautiful children” and “a warm family home”.
Describing it has a “mindless and fericous knife attack”, he told the court: “Our family had been broken and our futures taken away from us in a blink of an eye.”
The court heard that Porczynski was “a total stranger” to the family and had lived a few streets away.
Daniel Cross had been up since 5am to travel to Hull and had gone to bed when he was woken up by a call from his anxious wife. She told him that a man had banged on her front door and that she had not answered it. He had knocked on a neighbour’s door moments before muttering something about “kids”.
The court heard that Porczynski returned home where his housemate Robert Dziel also became concerned and considered calling the police.
“Nicola Cross was still very bothered by what was happening. She had rung police for updates; she also rang her husband and told him what was happening. She told him the the police had been and they had let him go,” said Donnellan.
Porczynski took a small kitchen knife from his home and at about 11.25pm or 11.30pm returned to the road where the Crosses lived.
“He got the wrong house and smashed the rear patio door to the neighbouring house of Mr Shah. Mr Shah was there and had just finished a shower. He shouted at him: ‘What are you doing here?’ and the defendant ran back out,” said Donnellan.
Shah called police and while they attended the scene there was “a loud crash followed very shortly afterwards by screaming” from Cross’s house. They could not access the house through the front door and then discovered the defendant and asked him to open another door.
They entered the house and saw a child downstairs, who told them: “He has hurt my mummy badly.” They found a small broken kitchen knife in the bathroom alongside a pair of Cross’s glasses. Upstairs they found Cross and tried but failed to resuscitate her.
“Nicola Cross was clearly defenceless … the degree of force is severe, as is absolutely clear. She could have only survived the fatal injury for a few seconds before unconsciousness,” said Donnellan.
The court heard that Porczynski had been hearing voices telling him to “free some children” or his own family would be killed.
In a witness statement, Dziel who worked with Porczynski in a warehouse, said he had become worried about his housemate’s behaviour three weeks earlier. He hadn’t gone to work for a week before the killing, and one occasion Dziel came home and found Porczynski sitting in the garden alone in the dark.
Porczynski’s defence barrister described the killing as “a sad and terribly tragic case with overwhelming consequences” for the Cross family.
Porczynski will be sentenced on Monday morning.