‘It’s a mistake’, body parts murder suspect told police on arrest

A man arrested on suspicion of murder after allegedly cutting his victim into 27 pieces told police: “It’s definitely a mistake, 100%,” a court heard.

Marcin Majerkiewicz, 42, was held on April 25 last year, following the discovery of a human torso at Kersal Dale nature reserve in Salford on April 4.

He denies the murder of pensioner Stuart Everett, 67, who he lived with in Winton, Salford.

The human remains were initially unidentified but police discovered CCTV of a man going to the “deposition site” with a heavy bag and returning without it, Manchester Crown Court was told.

Three weeks after the grim discovery, two plain-clothes officers working on the inquiry were driving an unmarked police car down the road in Salford and passed Majerkiewicz walking in the other direction, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The Investigation Support Officer (ISO), Clare Daly, told her colleague ISO Matthew Ross, behind the wheel: “I think that’s the suspect.

“I saw an individual on the pathway who matched the description of the suspect we were trying to trace,” she said in a statement, read to the jury.

The officers turned the car around and followed the suspect on foot before he got on a number 100 bus, the court heard.

Shortly afterwards, Pc Paul Ashworth pulled his police car in front of the bus and boarded.

Body-worn video footage played to the jury showed the officer telling the suspect he was being detained to be searched, before he was handcuffed and taken off the bus.

Majerkiewicz was told he had been identified as a “person of interest” in a police investigation.

He replied: “It’s definitely a mistake, 100%.”

Pc Ashworth then tells Majerkiewicz he has been seen on several occasions on CCTV by police investigating a serious incident.

Majerkiewicz later says: “Someone steal something?”

Pc Ashworth replies: “It’s a bit more serious than that, matey.”

Police found Majerkiewicz had on him the phone and bank cards belonging to Mr Everett.

Minutes later, the officer then cautions Majerkiewicz, warning he is being arrested on suspicion of murder.

“What?” the suspect replies, before asking for a translator and shaking his head.

When police went to the house Majerkiewicz shared with Mr Everett on Worsley Road in Winton, they found a skip outside full of household items.

Inside they found evidence of bloodstaining and a clean-up operation, showing “something terrible had happened in that house”, Jason Pitter KC, prosecuting, told jurors.

Analysis of Majerkiewicz’s phone movements and CCTV footage showed him carrying bags and taking the bus on numerous “deposition journeys” to get rid of his victim’s body, it is alleged.

Jurors were told only around one third of Mr Everett’s body has been recovered.

Pathology of the skull fragments showed Mr Everett, a former civil servant originally from Derby, had been subject to a “sustained, severe blunt force physical assault”, with repeated blows to his head, shattering and fracturing his skull, before being dismembered with a hacksaw.

Majerkiewicz denies the murder or manslaughter of Mr Everett at their house in Winton, Salford, overnight between March 27 and March 28, last year.

The trial continues.