Boy was 15 when he killed Arkadiusz Jozwik, who fell and hit head on pavement at shopping centre in Harlow, Essex

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced to three and a half years in a young offender institution for the manslaughter of a Polish man, whose death soon after the referendum on whether to leave the European Union sparked fears of a wave of Brexit hate crime.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, punched Arkadiusz Jozwik in the back of the head during a row in Harlow, Essex, at about 11.30pm on 27 August last year.

Jozwik, who had been drinking, fell and hit his head on the pavement, causing the injuries that led to his death in hospital two days later.

The defendant, who was 15 years old at the time of the attack, had denied the manslaughter of Jozwik, 40, but was found guilty by a jury at Chelmsford crown court.

Passing sentence at Chelmsford crown court, Judge Patricia Lynch said the victim “was a perfectly decent, upstanding, well-loved man in his prime” whose death would be felt by his family, all of whom now live in Harlow, for the rest of their lives.

“The case is also a tragic one not only because of Mr Jozwik’s death, but because I now have to sentence a young man who is but 16 years of age,” she said.

The court heard how the attack, which had initially been approached as a hate crime, occurred after Jozwik and a friend, Radek Koscelski, approached a group of young people, including the defendant, at the Stow shopping centre in Harlow.

Patrick Upward, mitigating, said: “The deceased and his companion, according to the witnesses called by the prosecution, were staggering from drink; they made racist remarks; they invited violence from those youngsters; and they were considerably bigger and stronger than the young people involved.

“It was after the deceased pushed one of the youngsters that this defendant did what he did and that presents a rather different picture from the hullabaloo that [subsequently] arose after this incident took place.”

The court heard the defendant had two previous convictions, one for possessing half a knuckleduster and the other for threatening behaviour, and was on bail for a separate matter at the time of the attack.

Pointing to psychological reports that said the defendant regretted and felt remorse over Jozwik’s death, as well as his difficult background, Upward called on the judge to stop short of jailing the boy.

Rosina Cottage QC, prosecuting, read out an impact statement from Jozwik’s brother, who said he had to take two months off work to come to terms with the “unexpected and tragic” death.

In a second impact statement, Jozwik’s mother, Ewa, said: “A year has passed since Arek died but every day I miss him as much. There are moments I don’t want to live any more.”

The court heard that the family took some comfort from the guilty verdict.

The case generated huge interest in Poland, particularly in the context of the Brexit referendum, said Maciej Woroch, the London correspondent for Polish news channel TVN, who was covering the sentencing.

“Everyone firstly thought it was a hate crime, then we had to explain during the trial why it was changed,” he said. “Now I have to explain to my viewers why the sentence was only three years.”













