Murder prosecution for Gordon Cole QC

October 1, 2020

Gordon Cole QC from Exchange Chambers has successfully prosecuted a murder case in which a “violent bully” smothered and battered his partner to death.

The body of Magdalena Pacult, 46, was found by her 16-year-old daughter at Custley Hey in Stockbridge Village, Liverpool, on New Year’s Day.

The mother and daughter had talked into the early hours of 1 January, and when the daughter awoke around noon she found her mother’s body in bed.

The daughter made a “terrified call” to the police, trying to keep her voice down as the attacker was still in the house.

Officers arrived and found the body and 49 year-old Piotr Cichy, who was arrested.

A Home Office post mortem confirmed the cause of death was blunt force trauma and mechanical asphyxiation.

Cichy denied he had killed Mrs Pacult throughout the prosecution, claiming someone else had got into the house and committed the murder.

But police discovered he had gone to the home of some friends shortly after the murder with a bag containing his bloodied pyjamas and told them that he had killed Mrs Pacult.

He was convicted unanimously by a jury following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 19 years.