A SIMPLE joke and a ‘sexual slur’ led to simmering tension resulting in an explosion of brutal violence and the death of a father-of one.

However, it was the callous actions of Tomasz Dembler’s killers and their accomplices in wake of the killing which proved to be a difficult puzzle for detectives to solve.

It was Rafal Chmielewski and Zbigniew Pawlowski who carried out the vicious, fatal beating but it was with the help of their three accomplices that they nearly got away with it.

The Northern Echo: Tomasz DemblerTomasz Dembler

The 39-year-old’s severely beaten body was mutilated after his death when his hands were cut-off before his remains were stuffed into a suitcase and being whisked away to be buried in a shallow grave.

Monika Solerska; Tomasz Reczycki; and Adam Czerwinski, all pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by helping to dispose of the body.

Teesside Crown Court heard how they cleaned up the house on Edward Street, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, and attempted to erase all aspects of Mr Dembler’s life.

They stripped him naked before disposing of all of the Polish national’s belongings and stripping the house of blood-stained carpets and furniture.

After making a number of reconnaissance trips to the burial site at Flatt Lane Country Club they buried Mr Dembler’s remains in a shallow grave under the cover of darkness.

A week later, some of them returned to the scene to check to see if the body had been discovered.

If it wasn’t for two teenage girls enjoying a day in the woods before spotting some toes sticking out of the ground, a month later – they could have got away with their brutal crime.

Detectives then had to trawl through hours of CCTV footage to try to piece together the final movements of Mr Dembler before identifying a number of suspects.

It was the painstaking work of scrolling through hours of mobile phone and automatic number plate recognition data, which eventually led to the arrest of the five people charged with murder.

Seven weeks into the trial, two of the defendants changed their plea to guilty of manslaughter and the three remaining defendants pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dimelow said: "This case has been extremely complex and the Homicide Major Enquiry Team has worked diligently alongside the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that the people responsible for the killing of Tomasz Dembler are behind bars.

"The team scoured CCTV and used other techniques to prove the movements of the criminals and built a strong case against them to prove that they were responsible for the killing and hiding his body.

"Tomasz’s death has had a significant impact on his family, we have provided support to them throughout the case and our thoughts remain with them."

The collation of the digital data proved key in bringing all five defendants to justice – detectives were able to place them at the house on Edward Street, making repeated trips to the burial site at Flatts Lane Country Park, and even to Hull where Mr Dembler’s mobile phone was switched on for a minute before disappearing without a trace.

Chris Atkinson, Head of the Crown Court Unit at CPS North East, said: “We have worked closely with Cleveland Police to build a robust case against all of those sentenced today in what has been a particularly challenging case, due to the significant passage of time between the killing of Tomasz Dembler and his eventual discovery a month later.

“Using CCTV, phone analysis and ANPR data we have been able to clearly show the movement of the defendants, as they travelled between Tomasz’s home in North Ormesby and the site of his discovery in Flatt’s Lane Country Park.

The Northern Echo: The faces of Tomasz Dembler's two killers revealed along with images of their three accomplices who helped hide the bodyThe faces of Tomasz Dembler's two killers revealed along with images of their three accomplices who helped hide the body

“In the face of that evidence, Rafael Chmielewski and Zbigniew Pawlowski have now accepted that they unlawfully killed Tomasz, with their co-accused also accepting their part in hiding his body.

“We hope that their sentences today provides some measure of comfort to Tomasz’s family, at what must remain a difficult time for them.”

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