'I have nightmares that he will come back and kill me': Mother buried alive in box by bodybuilder lover tells of terror as he is found guilty

She said thinking of her three-year-old son gave her the strength to escape

Addicted to steroids, her former lover would go to the gym five times a week



Flexing his biceps, the bodybuilder cuts an intimidating pose for the camera.

Months later Marcin Kasprzak used his powerful physique to force his girlfriend inside a cardboard box and bury her alive in remote woodland.

Remarkably, Michalina Lewandowska, 27, escaped by using the diamond engagement ring he once gave her to cut the parcel tape binding her ankles and help slice the box apart.

Muscle man: Bodybuilder Marcin Kasprzak shows off the physique he honed at a gym five days a week

'No emotion': Marcin Kasprzak looked blank as he was found guilty of attempting to murder girlfriend Michelina Lewandowska by sealing her into a box and hiding it in a shallow grave



Kasprzak, 25, is likely to receive a hefty jail sentence after being found guilty of attempted murder yesterday. But his former fiancée, who now lives in a refuge, still has nightmares that he will kill her.

‘The big question for me now is how long he’ll be jailed for because I won’t feel safe if he is free,’ she said after the verdict.

‘I still have nightmares that Marcin will come back to find me and kill me. I want him to be locked up in a safe place for as long as possible, just so that me and my son can try to have a happy life.

‘For many years I loved Marcin Kasprzak very much. But after his horrific attack upon me my feelings towards him have turned to hatred.

‘My only hope is that he can accept that what he did to me was very wrong. I really hope that no one will ever experience what I went through on that day, at the hands of a man whom I loved and trusted.’

Vicious attack: The 300,000-volt stun gun that callous Kasprzak used on his partner left her struggling to breathe and move for two weeks

She added: ‘During my time inside my shallow grave where I was buried alive I feared that my life was at an end and I was going to die.

‘I prayed to God to help me to survive so that I could look after my young son.

‘The thought of my son gave me the strength to fight my way out of the box and save myself.’ When they moved to the UK from their native Poland five years ago, the couple were deeply in love.

At one stage Kasprzak had proposed to his girlfriend, but after the birth of their son Jakub in April 2008 the relationship deteriorated.

Sources claim Kasprzak, a meat factory worker, would visit a gym at least five times a week to build up his muscles.

They said he also became addicted to anabolic steroids which made him prone to violent outbursts. He decided he ‘hated’ his girlfriend and no longer wanted her to live with him in his parents’ home in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

Lifesaver: The ring that had represented so many promises between the couple was used by Miss Lewandowska to rip off her ties and get out of the cardboard box



Instead, he wanted his mother to bring up their young son. Although barely on speaking terms the couple continued living together.

Determined to get his former fiancée out of the way, Kasprzak tricked her into thinking they were going on a shopping trip.

'Deceived': Patryk Borys, who assisted in the kidnap, was cleared of attempted murder

But as she stood in the hallway of their home, he shot her twice with a 300,000 volt Taser-style gun and then bound and gagged her with tape. He forced her into a cardboard box and drove her to a wood on the outskirts of Huddersfield where he buried the box in a shallow grave.

Kasprzak then walked off leaving her to suffocate.

Miss Lewandowska, a clothes mender, was left trapped face down, with soil and a 90lb branch on top of the box to stop her escaping.

Against the odds, she managed to force her way out using her engagement ring before she ran out of oxygen. She then staggered to a nearby road to raise the alarm late at night in May this year.

During his trial at Leeds Crown Court Kasprzak said he only meant to scare her and claimed he always intended to free her. But instead of helping her, he took her bank card and withdrew £500 before heading to the home of his 18-year-old accomplice Patryck Borys where they were arrested hours later.

Borys was yesterday cleared of attempted murder by a jury. He pleaded guilty to kidnap at a previous hearing. Kasprzak also admitted possessing a prohibited weapon.

Kasprzak and Miss Lewandowska began a relationship six years ago after they met in a shop near her parents’ home in Lasocin – a village in south west Poland. Her father Jan Lewandowska, 52, a welder, said he knew Kasprzak ‘was trouble’ from the moment he met him.

Speaking to the Mail from the home he shares with his wife Miroslawa and their youngest, of three, daughter Jagoda, 22, he said: ‘I always knew something wasn’t right about Marcin, right from the start. We didn’t make eye contact.

‘He was spoiled and over-protected, maybe because he is an only child and a Mummy’s boy.

Terrifying ordeal: The shallow grave in a wood near Huddersfield in which the 27-year-old mother was concealed

Brave: Miss Lewandowska was sealed into the box with parcel tape, but had just enough air to survive until she escaped

‘His mother kept him cooped up in a cage like a chicken all his life so when he went out into the world he didn’t really know what to do.’

He added: ‘The conflict between them got worse and worse, but there was no violence. Then this happened. Either his muscle-building steroids messed with his brain or he went crazy for some reason.

‘I now believe his motivation was greed – greed to take Jakub away from Michalina and to give Jakub to his own mother. It is pretty sick when you think about it.’

Miss Lewandowska’s mother Miroslawa added: ‘I am so happy by the verdict because for me it means peace at last. I was waking up at night having nightmares in which I saw Marcin’s face. He was haunting me like a ghost.’