00:00:07
- NARRATOR: May the 22nd, 1997,
Hammersmith, London. 46-year-old Trajce Koneva
cycled home to meet
00:00:15
his 12-year-old daughter,
Katerina. It was the first time the
schoolgirl had ever been
00:00:21
home alone. - DR. YARDLEY: Her father tried
to phone her and she wasn't answering
00:00:27
and he became quite worried
so he rushed back home. And when he arrived
he, couldn't get into the house.
00:00:34
He sees a pair of man's shoes
underneath the door and this causes him concern
because there's somebody
00:00:41
in his home who shouldn't
be there. - He starts to bang on the door
with all his might,
00:00:47
he shoves it, he kicks it,
he cannot open it. Consumed by fear, he is
horrified at what could be
00:00:55
happening to his beloved
daughter. - NARRATOR: Realizing the
intruder was escaping, Trajce
00:01:01
chased after him and came
face to face with Andrzej Kunowski, an illegal
immigrant from Poland.
00:01:09
Trajce didn't know it
but he was looking into the eyes of his
daughter's murderer.
00:01:15
- DAVID: Kunowski was
a cold-blooded criminal, he had no respect
for human life,
00:01:20
he had no
respect for young girls, he had no respect for the law. - NARRATOR: Katerina's
father chased after Kunowski
00:01:27
but the callous killer fled. A European manhunt was
already in force searching for the fugitive who was
wanted for charges
00:01:36
of sexual assaults and rapes
on women and young girls in Poland. - Kunowski was known as
The Beast, seldom has
00:01:44
a nickname been deserved
more. - NARRATOR: He was a
prolific pedophile and sexual predator who
attacked vulnerable victims
00:01:54
for almost three decades
and would go on to take the life of a 12-year-old girl.
00:02:00
This makes Andrzej Kunowski one of the world's most evil
killers. - ♪ - NARRATOR: May the 22nd,
1997, Hammersmith,
00:02:30
West London, England. The country was in shock
when news broke that a 12-year-old schoolgirl
had been brutally murdered
00:02:38
in her own home. Katerina Koneva was followed
home from school by a prolific sex offender
and pedofile,
00:02:47
41-year-old Andrzej Kunowski. - GEOFFREY: She was beautiful,
talented, promising,
00:02:53
and to snuff out her life
was an act of inconceivable brutality,
barbarity of the worst kind.
00:03:01
- NARRATOR: Kunowski was
a wanted Polish national who'd entered the UK illegally
less than seven months
00:03:08
before the brutal murder. He left his mark on Senior
Investigating Officer, David Little.
00:03:15
- Kunowski was actually
probably one of the worst people I've ever dealt with in my time
00:03:20
mainly 'cause he was so
prolific. - NARRATOR: The MET Police
worked tirelessly to identify
00:03:25
Katerina's killer. In doing so they would also
bring to justice a criminal who was wanted for a string
of heinous crimes in Poland.
00:03:36
Journalist Szymon Wyrostek
was a young boy at the time of Kunowski's crimes in Poland.
00:03:43
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - MALE INTERPRETER: He's still
remembered in our town.
00:03:49
He was a very dangerous
criminal and an utterly depraved man. He had no regard for human
life, people were there
00:03:56
to satisfy his wild,
animalistic urges. - DAVID: He had no remorse
at all, and there was nothing
00:04:04
that could stop him,
basically, apart from being incarcerated. - NARRATOR: This killer's
story begins in Warsaw,
00:04:10
Poland. Andrzej Miroslav Klembert
was born on March the 29th, 1956. Warsaw had suffered heavily
during the Second World War
00:04:23
and this post-war period
was a difficult time for the country. Young Andrzej didn't have
the easiest of childhoods.
00:04:32
- His parents were petty
criminals; at the age of two, he went to a foster home
because both of his parents
00:04:37
went to prison. His grandfather,
we understand, was in a psychiatric ward
or sexual offences as well.
00:04:45
- He went into the institutional
care system and I think by the time he was returned
to his mother quite a lot
00:04:51
of damage had been done. - NARRATOR: After leaving
prison Andrzej's mother met and married builder
Stefan Kunowski.
00:05:00
Andrzej took his stepfather's
surname and the family set up home in Mlawa,
a small town 80 miles north
00:05:07
of Warsaw. At first, family life appeared
to be normal. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish]
00:05:16
- INTERPRETER: As a child
Kunowski was quite short, a bit overweight, he was
teased by his classmates
00:05:22
and he struggled to fit in. I think this had an impact
on his psyche. - PAUL: He was a bit
of a mother's boy, but he had
00:05:31
a ferocious temper and he
used to respond to the taunts with explosions of anger
and violence.
00:05:38
- NARRATOR: As well as a violent
tendency, as he grew older, Kunowski became fascinated
with local girls
00:05:45
which unnerved those
around him. - GEOFFREY: His mother begins to
sense that there's something
00:05:51
in the adolescent Kunowski
that is a little unusual. She was to say later that
he developed an unhealthy
00:05:59
appetite for sex, an
unnatural sexual desire. - NARRATOR: Age 13,
he first came to the attention
00:06:07
of the authorities for stealing. - Theft and those kind of
property offenses are all
00:06:13
about a sense of entitlement
they are about wanting something and just going
and taking it, regardless
00:06:18
of the impact on others. So this is a very early
warning sign for me. - NARRATOR: As punishment,
Kunowski was sent
00:06:27
to juvenile detention. - I think it would have been
a bit of a learning experience
00:06:32
for him but not a positive one. I think he would have been
learning from his peers
00:06:37
who had also committed
offenses. I think he's becoming a
slightly more skilled criminal
00:06:42
in the time that he's there. - NARRATOR: By the age of 17,
Kunowski had moved back into the family home
but soon reverted to his
00:06:51
thieving ways and would
steal money from his mother. His disturbing preoccupation
with local girls
00:06:58
had also continued. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Few people
knew what the monster
00:07:05
in their neighborhood was
hiding, some women said there was something strange
in his eyes.
00:07:12
- GEOFFREY: He was the sort of
boy that a girl would probably not look at twice.
00:07:17
But at the age of 17 he
clearly felt some kind of profound sexual urge and
decides to attack a neighbor's
00:07:26
16-year-old daughter. He drags her into the bushes
and rapes her. - DR. YARDLEY: This is a very
early age to be committing
00:07:34
this kind of offense and it's
very important that we realize that you don't go from a
healthy individual one day,
00:07:41
with normal psychological
functioning, to a rapist the next, there would have been
an escalation of behavior.
00:07:48
- NARRATOR: The
16-year-old victim was able to identify her neighbor
Kunowski as her rapist.
00:07:55
Two other local girls also
came forward, having been attacked in similar
circumstances, and one
00:08:01
of these was added to the
indictment against Kunowski. He was sentenced to three
years in prison.
00:08:08
It would be the first rape
conviction of many. - GEOFFREY: In 1976, he's released from prison,
he's now 20.
00:08:18
He's spruced himself up a bit,
given to dressing quite well. - PAUL: He also earned
the nickname of Little Doctor,
00:08:27
which involved his rather
exaggerated habit of clicking his heels and slightly bowing whenever
he met someone.
00:08:35
- GEOFFREY: But don't let anyone
be fooled by that, this is a man who has nothing in mind
but rape.
00:08:42
Within a month he commits
the next attack, this time it's a 24-year-old woman. - NARRATOR: Kunowski
was apprehended
00:08:50
and returned to prison for
another nine months for the rape. However, it was only
a temporary respite
00:08:56
for the community. - GEOFFREY: He was only
sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.
00:09:01
A young man who's already
served three years in prison for rape--was that not taken
into account?
00:09:11
Was there no suggestion
that perhaps we have the beginnings of a serial
rapist on our hands?
00:09:17
- NARRATOR: Once again,
prison time didn't curb the devious sexual desires
in Kunowski, instead, it only
00:09:25
seemed to ignite them,
and the 22-year-old went on to attack more
women and young girls
00:09:31
in the area. - In 1978 he committed
rapes in June, July, August, September, October,
and November,
00:09:41
sometimes, on one occasion,
up to four rapes in a month. He was totally prolific
and probably felt he was
00:09:47
untouchable. - [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Kunowski
would typically attack a woman
00:09:52
and then choke her. He had a specific method
to lure his victims in. First, he would call out
to a woman from his car
00:10:04
and as she'd approach him
and lean in he would wind up the window,
trapping her.
00:10:10
He would then approach her
from behind and very brutally rape her. His victims were extremely
intimidated and later
00:10:18
couldn't remember his face. Which shows just how brutal
and how aggressive this monster, The Beast
from Mlawa, was.
00:10:32
- NARRATOR: By the end
of 1978, Kunowski had brutally attacked at least
24 victims.
00:10:39
On the 22nd of December,
he forced a girl into a cellar holding a razor to her ear
before raping her.
00:10:47
She was just 11 years old. - Kunowski's record is one
of escalation, as he grows older
00:10:56
with more experience
of how he can get away with these attacks and with
better opportunities,
00:11:03
he can spot for these attacks, and it also reflects his
mounting lust. It's an escalating graph of
him getting more, and more,
00:11:11
and more dangerous. - NARRATOR: In January, 1979,
his reign of terror halted when authorities convicted
Kunowski for some
00:11:21
of the rapes he'd committed
during the previous year. But being behind bars in
a male prison still didn't
00:11:28
stop him offending. - DAVID: He was a very prolific
sex offender, he had also raped a cellmate in prison,
he had no remorse whatsoever.
00:11:36
- NARRATOR: In April, 1979
Kunowski was almost three months into a
sentence at Warszawa Wola
00:11:43
Detention Prison, Poland,
for a series of brutal rapes on young girls and women.
00:11:49
Bored of prison life, Kunowski
didn't intend to stay behind bars, he was planning
a great escape.
00:11:58
- Kunowski's in prison and
decides that he wishes not to be and saws through the bars
of his cell to get out.
00:12:07
It almost defies belief, I mean,
here is a serial rapist who seems to be able to
escape at will.
00:12:14
Needless to say, no sooner
has he done so, than he rapes again. - NARRATOR:
On the 8th of May, 1979,
00:12:22
police intercepted him 85 miles
away in the city of Lodz. Desperate to avoid re-arrest,
00:12:30
Kunowski took a young girl
hostage with an axe. After a tense standoff, police
succeeded in bringing him
00:12:37
back into custody. And after three months he
was transferred to a psychiatric hospital
in Prusków,
00:12:45
but once again he managed
to free himself. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: He saws
through the bars of the
00:12:52
psychiatric hospital and
breaks out. - NARRATOR:
Kunowski stole two cars and fled across the country.
00:13:00
But he was eventually
pursued by the police and crashed one of the
stolen cars into a house
00:13:06
near Jadów. He was immediately arrested
and taken back into custody on the morning
of August the 24th, 1979.
00:13:16
There, he awaited trial. - DR. YARDLEY: Prison is just a
bit of a revolving door for him
00:13:21
at this point in his life. When he's spending time
in prison he's learning from other people, he's
ruminating, he's fantasizing,
00:13:28
he's planning his next attack because that's all
that matters to him. - NARRATOR: Authorities
took a tougher stance in 1980,
00:13:36
when Kunowski was faced
with over 70 charges, predominantly for sex
offenses and rape against
00:13:43
women and children. The litany of charges also
included escape from a police convoy and
attempted murder.
00:13:51
- Finally his crimes catch up
with him and he's effectively sentenced to 15 years
imprisonment.
00:14:01
- NARRATOR: On hearing
the verdict, the prosecutor, Valdemas Marczewski
said he'd hoped to separate
00:14:07
Kunowski from society for
longer, as he was certain he would go on to rape again,
00:14:12
perhaps even start killing. Five years later, an additional
15 years were added in recognition of the brutality
Kunowski had shown
00:14:22
to one of his young victims. Kunowski was now facing
30 years behind bars. - DR. YARDLEY: At this point in
Poland's history, their prisons
00:14:32
are massively overcrowded,
the actual conditions in these prisons would have
been absolutely horrendous.
00:14:38
- NARRATOR: Kunowski was
desperate to get out and wrote to the Polish
authorities.
00:14:43
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: He claims
that his cell mates treated
00:14:46
him badly, that they humiliated
him psychologically and physically,
that he was beaten.
00:14:52
At some point his teeth
got knocked out. Kunowski complains that
he had his throat slit.
00:15:00
- NARRATOR: While Kunowski's
letters had no effect, a momentous announcement
by the Polish parliament
00:15:07
in 1989 would have a
significant impact on the 33-year-old's future. To mark the end of communism,
an amnesty act was passed,
00:15:18
which resulted in the reduction
of prison sentences. Kunowski used this to his
advantage.
00:15:24
On the 17th of January, 1990
the court in Osten delivered a decision allowing him to be
considered for parole.
00:15:33
He walked free the following
year after demonstrating good behavior. - DR. YARDLEY: There was an
absolute failure on the part of
00:15:40
the Polish criminal justice
system because he was a serial offender and
when somebody is constantly
00:15:46
making that decision time
and time again to harm other people they're not
going to simply decide to stop
00:15:51
one day. - NARRATOR: Despite his
criminal background, Kunowski's family were keen
to help their son get back
00:15:59
on his feet. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: With the
help of his family he bought
00:16:05
himself a delivery van,
and he was living in a flat which his parents bought him
on Tuwima Street in Mlawa.
00:16:15
Kunowski started training at
the local market, there he met a woman who would become
his future partner.
00:16:22
What the woman had in
common with his victims is a considerable age
difference, she was ten years his junior.
00:16:29
They would go on to have
a daughter together. - [speaking Polish] - NARRATOR: However,
despite setting up home
00:16:40
with his partner and her
six-year-old son, Kunowski still couldn't contain his
devious and aggressive behavior
00:16:48
and continued to
prey upon vulnerable women without his partner's
knowledge. She soon became aware
of his violent tendencies.
00:16:58
- GEOFFREY: Eventually,
he attacks her, and also, for good measure,
he attacks her son.
00:17:04
Trying to be someone
conventional and respectable simply doesn't suit Kunowski's
character.
00:17:15
Underneath that polished
exterior is a poisonous toad of a little man who thinks
nothing of destroying women
00:17:25
and anyone he may come
across. - NARRATOR: The relationship
broke down and Kunowski's partner left him.
00:17:33
She would soon discover she
was pregnant, and vowed to protect the child,
a baby girl, from him.
00:17:40
Meanwhile Kunowski had
become obsessed with a new type of victim, so-called
latchkey children.
00:17:49
- DR. YARDLEY: At this point
in his offending history he begins to target young girls
00:17:52
who are home alone,
latchkey children. Their mum, their dad might
be out at work and they
00:17:57
are in the house on their
own. Now, this is really significant
for me because he's starting
00:18:01
to engage in some kind of
stalking behavior and so this does suggest to me that
his offending is becoming
00:18:08
more sophisticated and he's
becoming a lot more dangerous. - NARRATOR: Soon reports of
school children being attacked
00:18:15
spread in and
around the county of Mlawa and as far away as Warsaw. Parents were terrified of
leaving their children alone.
00:18:25
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: At the time,
I was in primary school.
00:18:33
My classmates and I were
accompanied to the nearby school by our parents or grandparents.
00:18:38
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Where we were
allowed to go was restricted.
00:18:47
At that time I didn't know
his name, I just knew that he was an older man. We were told that if we
saw a man acting strange,
00:18:54
we should scream and go
straight home. - NARRATOR: In 1992,
Kunowski continued to prey
00:19:04
on vulnerable children
in both Mlawa and Warsaw. Despite being arrested
several times, by 1995
00:19:12
he was free to resume his
attacks on young girls. Targeting an 11-year-old
in February
00:19:19
and abducting another in March. On May the 16th that year,
he struck again. - GEOFFREY: Kunowski is on
the streets of Warsaw,
00:19:29
and once again targets
a young girl coming back from school. He watches her, sees that
she lets herself in to her flat
00:19:38
with a latchkey, there doesn't
appear to be anyone in except her. He knocks on the door,
forces his way in and then
00:19:48
engages her in a conversation,
which is bizarre to say the least, in which,
"Can you keep a secret?"
00:19:54
he says to her. She's obviously slightly
bewildered by all this. And then he asks her to kiss
him and then of course
00:20:04
he starts to suffocate her, he
pulls her blouse over her head and he attacks her.
00:20:10
- NARRATOR: Kunowski then
fled the scene, and the 10-year-old girl
bravely raised the alarm.
00:20:16
- She shouts, screams after him
and he is in fact caught. - NARRATOR: Linking other
similar crimes in the area,
00:20:25
the police were able to put
Kunowski on trial. The primary charge was rape
of an 11-year-old girl.
00:20:33
There was great interest
from the local media. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Journalists
named Kunowski The Beast
00:20:39
from Mlawa, a very
appropriate description when it comes to Kunowski. - NARRATOR: It seemed
that justice would finally
00:20:49
be served however there was
to be a twist of fate. - Kunowski pulls one of the
great stunts, he persuades
00:20:59
the prison authorities that
he's got a very sore left hip and that it very badly inhibits
his movement.
00:21:08
It is complete
and utter balderdash, but nevertheless, the Little
Doctor is quite convincing.
00:21:14
- DAVID: In June, 1996 he was
actually released from prison on three months' parole
in order to get a hip operation.
00:21:21
And he was left free to go
and sort it out for himself. - NARRATOR: The man
named The Beast never did
00:21:27
have his operation. Instead he embarked
on a 1,000-mile trip, he was London-bound.
00:21:35
- I think Kunowski reaches
the point where he realizes he needs a blank slate
so I think there is that urge
00:21:43
in him to start somewhere
else and to start looking for a new victim pool. - In his last years in Poland,
the press had taken
00:21:54
to giving him a nickname,
"The Beast." Well, The Beast had arrived
in England and it was only
00:22:02
a matter of time before he
would strike again. - DAVID: He arrived in October,
1996, at Victoria Station.
00:22:09
From that moment on he just
disappeared into the UK. As an illegal immigrant he was
totally below the radar
00:22:16
and because of that his DNA
was not taken, his fingerprints were not taken, we had no
knowledge of who Kunowski was.
00:22:24
- PAUL: At that time there was
tens of thousands of European people arriving. It was impossible for the
authorities to keep track
00:22:32
of this and very easy
for Kunowski to disappear into the subculture of London,
where jobs are paid
00:22:41
cash-in-hand, where rent
is paid cash-in-hand, and no questions are asked. - GEOFFREY: The fact that he is
an illegal immigrant
00:22:49
with a disgusting record of
crime in his native Poland is known to no one. - PAUL: It's difficult to
imagine Kunowski could even had
00:22:59
stood out in a crowd, he was
just an everyday bloke in the street. And in the accommodation
in which he flitted between,
00:23:06
in various bedsits and flats,
people were coming and going. It was a perfect cover for him
to get up to what he wanted
00:23:15
to do and to resume his
attacks on women. - NARRATOR: Just seven months
after arriving in the UK,
00:23:22
Kunowski's perverse desire
for attacking children was once again ignited. He was on the prowl for
another victim and the
00:23:31
41-year-old reverted to a
familiar M.O., following so-called latchkey children
home from school
00:23:39
in the knowledge that they
would be alone. And it wasn't long before
he struck again.
00:23:45
- PAUL: Kunowski had spotted
Katerina Koneva. I suspect that he did his
homework and that he knew
00:23:51
that she left school and
would arrive back at her flat in Hammersmith. - DAVID: Katerina was a
12-year-old girl
00:23:59
who'd come over from Macedonia
with both of her parents, Trajce and Jackie,
and her younger brother.
00:24:04
She was studying at Holland
Park School, she was well-liked, she was a bubbly
young girl.
00:24:09
Her family were here to
learn English and to escape from Macedonia, effectively,
as they wanted a better life.
00:24:16
- NARRATOR: On May the
22nd, 1997, as Katerina made her way home from
school she couldn't know
00:24:24
she was being followed. - DR. YARDLEY:
This is very similar to the offense that we know of
in Poland,
00:24:30
so this would have
been planned because this would have involved some
kind of stalking.
00:24:35
And I've heard stalking
described as murder in slow motion and that's
exactly what it is in this case.
00:24:42
- NARRATOR: When the
12-year-old arrived at her flat, Kunowski was close behind.
00:24:47
In a twist of fate this was
the first time Katerina had ever been home alone. - Her dad should have been
at home but unfortunately
00:24:57
he was delayed at his
English lessons and so he was late. Katerina went home from school
as normal,
00:25:04
let herself in,
and we assume that Kunowski knocked on her door, there was
no sign of forced entry at all,
00:25:10
and the door was locked
internally after he'd entered the house. - GEOFFREY: I think she would
have opened the door,
00:25:16
she was a trusting young girl. What she was doing, however,
was letting in a monster.
00:25:23
He takes her into the living
room of the flat and barricades the door with a chair.
00:25:30
- PAUL: From that moment,
inside the flat, what happened between killer and victim
only the killer knows.
00:25:38
But he clearly had grabbed
her and began to choke her with a cord he found to hand.
00:25:44
Pushing her down and choking
her at the same time as he attacked her. She must have been screaming,
but in a flat
00:25:52
at that time of the day,
no one could hear it. - NARRATOR: At some point
Katerina's father, Tracje,
00:25:58
had returned home but the
door was locked from the inside and Katerina
did not answer.
00:26:05
Becoming concerned, Tracje
looked through the letterbox. - He saw Katerina lying on
the floor, he then saw
00:26:13
beneath the door, basically
what he describes as two black shoes. He then obviously realized
that something was wrong.
00:26:20
- GEOFFREY: He's horrified,
he starts to bang on the door with all his might,
he shoves it, he kicks it,
00:26:25
he cannot open it. Consumed by fear, he is
horrified at what could be happening to his beloved
daughter.
00:26:35
- DAVID: Whilst that was
happening he became aware that the person inside had moved
to the front of the house,
00:26:40
effectively, and naturally
assumed that the person was leaving by the
first-floor window.
00:26:46
So he ran downstairs and
out to the front and saw Kunowski actually coming
out of the window
00:26:51
and land in the front garden. He then confronted Kunowski, who just basically
stared at him.
00:26:59
- NARRATOR: Getting his
first look at the intruder, Tracje noticed a spot of
blood on his face.
00:27:05
As Kunowski fled the scene,
Tracje had only a split second to plan his next move.
00:27:12
His instinct was to chase
after him. - As they went down the
street Kunowski turned
00:27:19
and shouted to passersby,
"Help me, help me!" And two workmen could
see that something
00:27:25
was happening here
and decided to intervene. - DR. YARDLEY: He's actually
making out that he's the victim,
00:27:30
that somebody's after him,
and passersby in the streets basically help him. - NARRATOR: The well-meaning
members of the public
00:27:39
held Tracje back, allowing
Kunowski to get a head start. Tracje managed to break free
and continued the pursuit.
00:27:48
The chase came to an
abrupt halt when Kunowski pulled out a knife. Surrendering, Tracje rushed
back to check on his daughter.
00:27:59
- After Kunowski had run
away from Tracje, he wanted to get away from the scene
of the crime as fast
00:28:03
as he possibly could. There was a young lady
driving her car down the street at the time,
he stopped in front of her
00:28:09
and threatened her with
a knife and made her get out of her car. - NARRATOR: He sped off
in the hijacked vehicle
00:28:15
before abandoning it
half a mile away on Shepherd's Bush Road. He then boarded a bus destined
for Hammersmith Broadway.
00:28:25
- He gets off the bus and
disappears into the crowd. Once again in the wind,
beneath the radar.
00:28:33
- NARRATOR: With Kunowski
on the run, Tracje had made it back to his flat. The scene behind the door
would devastate
00:28:40
his family's life forever. - PAUL: When he came back he
had to break the door down
00:28:46
to get in past the barricades
that Kunowski had across the door, and there found
his daughter with this cord
00:28:54
so tight around her neck,
lying on the floor. He was trying desperately
to pull at this cord
00:28:59
and he couldn't manage it
so he went to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife to try
and cut it open.
00:29:06
- DAVID: He was screaming
for help, obviously, and one of the neighbors went
to help him, police were called.
00:29:12
- And by the time they
arrived he was desperately trying to revive her. Paramedics took over,
but without any success.
00:29:21
- NARRATOR:
Katerina had been murdered. The cause of the 12-year-old's
death was strangulation.
00:29:29
The police needed to act
fast to find the culprit. - Most killings happen in
a domestic scene and often
00:29:38
it's the last person or the
person there who turns out to be the killer. - Unfortunately Tracje has
to be considered as a suspect
00:29:46
and was being questioned
as such. - The first time his wife
finds him, he is a prisoner.
00:29:55
Her daughter is dead
and her husband is accused of killing her. The impact on her must
have been devastating.
00:30:05
- NARRATOR: With no
witnesses to the murder itself, police appeal to the
local community
00:30:10
for information. Seven people would come forward
having witnessed the chase but their evidence had flaws.
00:30:18
A number of the witnesses
had assumed that Kunowski was actually a victim being
chased and so descriptions
00:30:25
of him became muddled
with descriptions of Tracje. The police were no closer
to catching the actual killer.
00:30:33
Whilst police artists worked
to produce a composite sketch of the man seen
running away detectives
00:30:40
had a stroke of luck when
a local builder's yard checked their security camera. - There is CCTV evidence
of the two running past
00:30:49
an alleyway, first Kunowski
and then, obviously, being... chased by Tracje. - NARRATOR: The CCTV
proved Tracje's claims
00:30:57
that he had chased an
intruder away from his home. At the murder scene, forensic teams found two
significant clues.
00:31:06
- GEOFFREY: One was a
fingerprint on the windowsill which did not belong to any
member of the family.
00:31:11
The other was a single hair
on a cardigan of Katerina's. - NARRATOR: But there was
one major obstacle.
00:31:19
- Kunowski's fingerprints
weren't on file anywhere in Britain and so any
conventional method
00:31:27
of trying to find the offender
using either fingerprints or DNA wasn't available.
00:31:34
Kunowski was a ghost. - NARRATOR: Detectives
working to create a profile of the murderer couldn't
begin to guess the true
00:31:43
depravity of this killer,
or how widespread his crimes were. - DR. YARDLEY: It was inevitable
that Kunowski was going to kill
00:31:51
because he enjoyed the
feelings of power, he felt that he was entitled
to do what he wanted
00:31:57
with his victims. - NARRATOR: Once again
Kunowski was at large. The killer moved towards
the West Midlands seeking
00:32:05
employment in fruit farms,
but he soon went back to his thieving ways. - It wasn't long before he
had his fingers in the till
00:32:14
and he was arrested for
stealing from his employer. He clearly thought he was
bulletproof.
00:32:21
- NARRATOR: When police examined
Kunowski's forged passport they discovered his visa
had expired,
00:32:27
and he was detained
in Oxfordshire on immigration offenses. The murder of Katerina
one month earlier
00:32:35
still remained unsolved. And whilst forensic evidence
had been taken from the murder scene, there was
no match on the national
00:32:43
DNA database. Immigration officials didn't
know they had a killer in custody and the killer
had no intention of waiting
00:32:53
to be caught. - Had the law at that time
allowed the immigration authorities to take a DNA
sample from someone
00:33:03
they suspected was an
illegal immigrant they would have been able to say to the
police in Hammersmith
00:33:10
that the man they had in
their custody was actually the man who had murdered
Katerina.
00:33:16
- NARRATOR: Unaware that
they had a killer in custody, immigration authorities
granted Kunowski
00:33:22
temporary release whilst
his case was being considered. - PAUL: He was in need
of a new identity,
00:33:29
so when he was released
from the detention center, he managed to procure a fake
Portugese passport
00:33:36
and of course, again,
it put another distance between
himself and his criminal past.
00:33:42
- NARRATOR: In September, 1997,
Kunowski's application was turned down
and he appealed.
00:33:49
The serial escapee had no
intention of returning for his immigration hearing. By the time the appeal was
rejected in December, 1997,
00:34:00
he had disappeared. He would live life under the
radar for the next four years. - DAVID: I have no idea where
he was for those years.
00:34:09
He was using aliases,
he may have been arrested and dealt with under another
name somewhere else
00:34:15
totally different. But I find it inconceivable
that he did not commit other offenses.
00:34:20
- NARRATOR: In 2001,
four years after the brutal killing of Katerina, Kunowski had made his way
back to West London.
00:34:30
- GEOFFREY: Kunowski's
brass neck knew no bounds, he even registers with the NHS
00:34:38
under his assumed name of Dias, for a heart bypass
operation. It's breathtaking audacity.
00:34:48
- NARRATOR: The following
year, after a period of recuperation, The Beast
was fighting-fit and back
00:34:54
on the streets of West London. - Now he's living in a room
in Acton working part time
00:35:02
as a tailor, little odd jobs
here and there. And yet again targeting
vulnerable young women.
00:35:09
At one point, he's hovering
outside Ealing Broadway Underground Station and he spies a young
Korean woman, 21,
00:35:21
looking at a board which
has advertisements for rooms to let. - DAVID: He went up to her,
offered her assistance,
00:35:30
told her that he would help
her find somewhere to live, she'd not long been in the
country and her English
00:35:35
was actually very distorted. So he offered to take her
back to where he was staying,
00:35:40
his bedsit, and help her find
accomodation. - DR. YARDLEY: When Kunowski
decided to lure this student
00:35:46
back to his flat,
I think there was an intention to kill,
because he'd killed before,
00:35:51
I think he'd enjoyed
killing before, he'd gotten away with it
before. So I think there was a real
arrogance in him
00:35:56
at this point in time. - Once he got her to his
bedsit he overpowered her, tied her up, and raped her.
00:36:05
- Kunowski was now
at the height of his brutality as an experienced sexual
predator and brutal
00:36:14
in his aggression against women. And he attacked this Korean
student with a frenzy.
00:36:20
- To actually be taken, tied up
in somebody else's home and then raped is a
horrendous ordeal.
00:36:27
She was estranged to the
country, she'd not long been in this country, she'd thought
she'd been befriended
00:36:32
by somebody who was going
to help her. He abused that trust,
he abused her. - NARRATOR: During
the three-hour ordeal
00:36:39
the defenseless student's
survival instincts kicked in. - DR. YARDLEY: This young woman,
she was very smart, she was able
00:36:48
to basically talk her way
out of it, but she was able to say to him, "Well, it's okay,
I'll call you tomorrow,"
00:36:55
or, "I want to see you again." So she was appealing to a
kind of inherent narcissism
00:37:00
within him. And it saved her life, it was
an incredibly brave thing to do. - Kunowski, in his vanity
and arrogance, thought that
00:37:10
would be alright and that
she would actually phone him the following day. The young Korean woman
goes straight to the police.
00:37:18
For the first time Kunowski's
made a real blunder. - NARRATOR: By committing
the offense in his own flat,
00:37:25
Kunowski had effectively
led police to his front door. However, the police still
had no idea this was
00:37:32
Katerina's killer. In May, 2003 he was
convicted of the rape and received nine years
imprisonment
00:37:40
at HMP Belmarsh. When officials took Kunowski's
DNA it sparked some interesting developments.
00:37:49
- GEOFFREY: A number of things
have happened, his DNA is on file,
his fingerprints are on file.
00:37:55
The review of Katerina's
killing is initiated, and lo and behold,
the DNA matches.
00:38:03
- The most damning DNA
evidence was the DNA on the hair on Katerina's
cardigan and also a fingerprint
00:38:12
as Kunowski jumped out of
the window. Both of those are irrefutable,
absolute pieces of evidence.
00:38:19
- PAUL: When MET found that they
had not just a rapist but a significant murderer
in a case that they hadn't
00:38:25
been able to solve for
six years, they then checked in international files. And suddenly it flashed up,
to the astonishment
00:38:34
of the London detectives,
that Kunowski had this massive record
for two decades of attacks
00:38:42
in Poland. - The Polish authorities
were very helpful with their assistance and the
DNA proved that he'd committed
00:38:49
offenses in Poland as well. - NARRATOR: The trial for
the murder of Katerina Koneva
00:38:55
began at The Old Bailey
in March, 2004. Both Senior Investigating
Officer David Little
00:39:02
and Court Correspondent,
Paul Cheston witnessed the proceedings. - It was a very emotional
trial because the family,
00:39:12
both Tracje and Jackie,
were obviously very upset about what had happened. - PAUL: Tragedy on this nature,
a particularly violent murder
00:39:21
in a family, often has the
most destructive effect, they almost turn on
themselves in a way.
00:39:27
And Katerina's mother
and father split up. - Unfortunately, in every case
where a child or anybody
00:39:35
has been murdered, the family
assume a degree of guilt, absolutely incorrectly. Tracje expected to be home
before he was.
00:39:45
Jackie expected Tracje to be
home for their daughter arriving home. Between the two of them
they both harbored a degree
00:39:52
of guilt
for what had happened. - NARRATOR: Tracje was
face to face with his daughter's
00:39:58
killer once again. But this time he had to give
evidence of that fateful day and the heartbreaking
decision he made.
00:40:08
- PAUL: The moment that had the
most impact on me was just how he explained how he'd
stumbled across this attack
00:40:15
on his own daughter in his
own flat and was confronted with the two-horned dilemma
of: chase the attacker
00:40:24
or tend to his stricken
daughter. And that was explained in
his own words through
00:40:30
a whole veil of tears in his
eyes and choking in his throat, it was heartrending evidence
from the witness box.
00:40:39
- NARRATOR:
The heartless killer, Kunowski, appeared unmoved. - DAVID: When Kunowski was in
the docket court he showed
00:40:47
no remorse, he just stayed
there, listened to the evidence totally without any emotion
whatsoever.
00:40:55
- NARRATOR: It took the jury
of four women and eight men less than three hours
to decide.
00:41:01
Kunowski was found guilty
of Katerina's murder and sentenced to life
imprisonment
00:41:07
by the Common Serjeant of London
Judge Peter Beaumont QC. - Sentencing Kunowski
for the murder of Katerina
00:41:16
the judge said, and I quote,
"You took the life of a child "who was just beginning to
enjoy what this country
00:41:23
"had to offer. "It was a life of great promise
and you ended it in circumstances of great
violence and terror."
00:41:33
- NARRATOR: Kunowski's
sentence was bittersweet for Katerina's parents. - DAVID:
They'd lost their daughter,
00:41:39
a 12-year-old girl. At the time of conviction
Tracje felt there was closure and it had been dealt with.
Jackie didn't.
00:41:49
She felt cheated, she just
felt that nothing could be done to make amends for
what he had done.
00:41:57
- NARRATOR: Whilst
Kunowski began his sentence at HMP Frankland, Europe's
media descended
00:42:03
on the small village of Mlawa. - GEOFFREY: In Poland,
Kunowski's mother is, naturally, approached
by the media,
00:42:10
and she confesses that she never
thought that he was entirely
normal but refuses
00:42:15
to accept that he actually
is a monster. - NARRATOR: Kunowski
wasn't in prison for long.
00:42:23
Five years into his life
sentence, he died of heart failure
in the Durham Prison, aged 53.
00:42:31
- When we discovered that
Kunowski had died in prison the first thing we did was
to go and tell the families.
00:42:38
And I do know that Jackie
felt cheated by his death, she wanted him to burn
in hell, she said.
00:42:45
She did feel that he'd got
the easy way out. - NARRATOR: Even after his
death countless victims
00:42:52
are still living a life sentence
imposed by him. - INTERPRETER: This kind of
experience had an impact
00:42:58
on these people, it changed their life
and behavior entirely. - DAVID: He continually offended
whilst he was at large
00:43:08
and I'm certain he must have
committed other offenses. - GEOFFREY: We cannot know how
dangerous Kunowski was.
00:43:17
This was, literally,
a predator on the loose. He could have committed
literally hundreds of attacks
00:43:25
and we shall never ever know
for sure. - NARRATOR: He was a prolific
sex offender and pedophile
00:43:33
who caused torment and fear
across Europe for almost three decades before taking
the life of a bright,
00:43:41
young girl who had her
whole future ahead of her. He showed no remorse
for any of his actions
00:43:48
and that's what makes
Andrzej Kunowski one of the world's most evil
killers. - ♪
00:44:11
♪♪ - [swishing sound]