Man jailed for stabbing brother to death at house-warming party

A man who fatally plunged a kitchen knife into his older brother at a house-warming party has been jailed for manslaughter.

Marcin Woznicki, 23, of Derby, stabbed his brother, Mateusz, 27, with such force the tip of the blade bent as it broke two of his ribs.

He also suffered a punctured lung and liver and had a major vessel attached to the heart severed in the attack at his Chellaston home in July, 2018.

A court heard how Woznicki, a nurse, made no attempt to save his brother after stabbing him four times.

He was jailed for 10 years and three months at Leicester Crown Court, following a two week trial.

A jury found him not guilty of murder but guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Matuesz had picked up his brother from East Midlands Airport three days before the incident, said DCI Emlyn Richards, of Derbyshire police.

He had arranged a house-warming party at the home he had just moved into and had invited his younger brother Woznicki.

The defendant had denied murder claiming he was acting in self-defence as his brother was coming at him ‘looking like a demon’.

Jailing him, Judge Philip Head, said: ‘So far as the death of your brother is concerned, nothing I will say or sentence you to can begin to equal the value of the life you have taken away.

‘He attacked you upstairs and you went downstairs. Joining others at the party in the garden was amply available to you.

‘Instead you picked up a very large kitchen knife and told a party guest to “get out of my way”.

‘Your brother came down the stairs unarmed, you reached between the spindles and stabbed him three times to his back and once to his side.’

Speaking outside court immediately following sentence, DCI Richards, said:  ‘Fortunately cases of fratricide are very rare.

‘The events that unfolded on July 2018 in Chellaston have left a partner without a soul mate, friends without a friend, and the family without a son and grandson.

‘Mateusz Wozkincki was living in Derby. He had a car, a house, a job and a bright future which he was making plans for…

‘He did not know on that night that his brother would turn against him and attack him as he came down the stairs, stabbing him three times in the back and once in the side with that last wound proving fatal.

‘The actions of Marcin Woznicki following that were to simply sit down on the settee and offer no assistance to his brother who lay dying.

‘I welcome the sentence and the conviction, it means our communities are safer and it brings closure for a family who are left without a son and grandson.’