The sentence for Radoslaw Artur Czerkawski, 37, came down during an afternoon hearing in Norfolk Superior Court, according to District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey’s office.

A Polish national received an eight- to 10-year prison sentence Tuesday for torturing a dog that became known to the world as “Puppy Doe,” bringing a long-awaited reckoning in a case that had infuriated animal rights activists.

The sentence came one day after a jury convicted Czerkawski of 12 counts of animal cruelty. Jurors acquitted him of a charge of misleading a police investigation.

Czerkawski, a former Quincy resident, arrived in the United States on a student visa in 2008 and was charged with inflicting abuse on a pit bull that authorities eventually learned had been named Kiya, leaving the dog with broken bones, burns, dislocated joints, a split tongue, a stabbed eye, and complications from starvation before it had to be euthanized in 2013.

Czerkawski is also serving previously imposed prison terms for stealing about $4,500 from a New Bedford church in 2012 and $130,000 from the late Janina Stock, a 90-year-old woman he had been caring for in Quincy before she died in 2013,


An ICE detainer has been lodged on him, meaning he’ll be subject to deportation proceedings when he completes his sentences.

“We felt that a substantial period of incarceration was warranted in light of the terrible nature of the abuse, the evidence that the abuse was ongoing for a significant period of time and the kind of injuries discovered in the investigation,” Morrissey said in a statement. “The evidence of injury in this case was shocking.”

MSPCA-Angell said in a statement, “The sentence is certainly more significant than we usually see in animal cruelty cases and while we are heartened by this, it is not the maximum he could have received. We applaud the Norfolk District Attorney’s office for the work that they did in this case. We are pleased the penalties for animal cruelty were increased in 2014 and look forward to passing PAWS II this legislative session which will further improve our animal cruelty laws.”


Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.