Girl, 1, died after 'systematic abuse', court hears

Warning: This story contains distressing details

A one-year-old girl was murdered after suffering "systematic physical abuse", a court has heard.

Isabella Stasiak was found to have suffered multiple fractures and a fatal head injury when police were called to her home in Rugby, Warwickshire, in January 2025.

Her mother Kinga Wydrzynska, 26, denies murder. She and the girl's father, 28-year-old Michal Stasiak, also deny causing or allowing the death of a child, four counts of causing or allowing serious physical harm, two counts of sexual assault by penetration and three of child cruelty.

Opening the case against them at Warwick Crown Court, Annabel Darlow KC warned jurors they would find evidence in the case "extremely distressing".

During the first hours of the trial the jury were told Wydrzynska had concealed her pregnancy from her family, and had given up the "unwanted" 13 month old for adoption at birth.

Isabella was returned to the care of her birth parents, who met when they both worked at a warehouse, in April 2024 after Stasiak contacted a social worker to ask if the couple could get help with housing if they changed their minds about having their daughter adopted.

Addressing the jury, Darlow said: "In due course, you may wish to consider the extent to which the prospect of acquiring a new home influenced the defendants when they reversed their earlier firm decision to relinquish Isabella."

Medical experts found Isabella died of injuries consistent with a "forceful, direct impact to her head against a hard surface" and that her head had been "severely shaken", jurors heard.

Her injuries are believed to have been inflicted fewer than 12 hours before she died.

She was also found to have sustained a number of further serious injuries, including fractured ribs, a broken right arm, multiple bruises and a burn covering her entire face.

"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," Darlow said.

Wydrzynska was the only adult present in the house when the fatal injuries were inflicted, the court heard.

The court was told Wydrzynska had recorded videos of her lifeless daughter in the early hours of 7 January, 17 minutes before she called emergency services.

The videos, which were later deleted, show a "monologue laced with self-pity in which [Wydrzynska] fusses about camera angles and complains about the negative consequences that will come her way because Isabella has died", Darlow said.

It is alleged she smoked in the back garden while police officers, who arrived five minutes after her 04:37 call, tried to save Isabella.

She was pronounced dead at University Hospital Coventry fewer than four hours later.

The girl's room was "cluttered with household junk" and she slept in a "flimsy" collapsible travel cot, the court heard.

Wydrzynska had made online searches at the end of December 2024 which suggested her mental health was declining, and also searched "how long do you get in prison for beating a child", prosecutors said.

Although he was not living with his former partner at the time of Isabella's death, Darlow said Stasiak had seen his child and the scald to her face would have been "highly visible".

She added: "You may think it is a statement so obvious, that someone seeing a helpless small child with such an injury should immediately have sought medical attention and questioned the carer of that child about how the injury occurred."

The trial is expected to last up to three months.

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