Man said friend would be ‘better off dead’ and tried to kill her
A former psychiatrist tried to kill his friend by viciously beating her about the head after becoming convinced she would be “better off dead”.
Andre Jedrzejczyk, 60, believed he was committing “an act of mercy” when he attacked his 75-year-old female friend with a glass and a concrete ornament, leaving her badly injured in a pool of blood.
He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today, June 29, where he pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
Jedrzejczyk, of Chilton Court in Maghull, visited his friend, whom he had known for many years, at her home on November 16, 2022. She was aware he suffered from bipolar disorder, and asked him about his condition.
The judge heard there had been no animosity between the pair during the time they had known each other, and “everything appeared fine”. But when the woman turned her back, Jedrzejczyk attacked her from behind, hitting her on the head with a glass bottle until it broke.
The woman collapsed, and Jedrzejczyk struck her again with a concrete ornament while she laid on the kitchen floor.
Judge Gary Woodhall said: “You told police that you had wanted to murder your friend, saying you felt her life was ruined and she would be better off dead. You admitted you hit her, thinking you would knock her out. That had not happened. You recalled she pleaded with you, but you again struck her with the bottle, causing it to smash.”
After battering the pensioner, Jedrzejczyk called 999 as he had “changed his mind”. Emergency services found the woman “in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor”, bleeding heavily from a wound on her head. She was taken to hospital, where she was treated for a brain bleed, a fractured jaw, and cuts and bruises to her head and face.
Despite her injuries, the woman said in a statement: “You have to have justice and forgiveness, and let bitterness go.”
Jedrzejczyk, a former psychiatrist at Ashworth high-security psychiatric hospital, was found to be suffering from serious mental illness at the time of the attack, and had formed a “genuine belief that the incident was an act of mercy”.
The court heard he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder following his retirement in 1995, and had recently developed a delusional disorder.
Judge Woodhall said: “It’s clear that, as someone with no previous convictions, with no long-standing troubles in your friendship with the victim, you must have been acting under some delusional belief at the time. There’s no other possible explanation for your actions, and this is supported by your acts following the violence – calling the emegency services, and the comments you made to police.
“A doctor describes you as severely mentally unwell at the time of the offence. He said there’s a clear and direct link between your illness and the attack, and it would not have occured were you not in a psychotic state.”
He decided to send Jedrzejczyk to a high-security hospital, and sentenced the former medic to a section 37 order with section 41 restrictions in place to protect the public from serious harm.
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References
- ^ Man taunts gang who hacked off his leg with machete over drug debt (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
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