01 April 2024 , 21:41
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Slawomir Tumilowicz strangled tragic partner Rafal Duszyca from behind at their home in Solihull, West Midlands, and delayed calling emergency services for 24 minutes
A man killed his boyfriend during a drunken row with a "Kung Fu chokehold" he learned from a movie.
Slawomir Tumilowicz, 39, strangled Rafal Duszyca from behind and then delayed calling emergency services for 24 minutes. A court heard Tumilowicz had claimed he tried to revive his partner himself but it emerged he had used the same manoeuvre on Mr Duszyca, 38, during an incident a few months previous, prompting the victim to text him afterwards saying "You almost killed me".
Tumilowicz admitted manslaughter and was jailed for nine years on Thursday at Birmingham Crown Court. Sentencing the killer, Judge Francis Laird KC described his relationship with Mr Duszyca as "volatile" and said the pair often had heated arguments, sometimes fuelled by alcohol, late at night.
Tumilowicz’s first chokehold manoeuvre, in March 2022, was witnessed by his and his partner’s landlord, who had gone into their room in due to a commotion. The fatal one happened in the same room at the property in Solihull, West Midlands, in the early hours of July 1 that year.
Police are pictured outside the address in Solihull, West Midlands, on July 1, 2022 ( Image: BPM Media)
Judge Laird said: "It must have been obvious to you or it should have been obvious that to place someone in a chokehold for a minimum of 15 to 30 seconds applying significant pressure carried with it a high risk."
Paramedics arrived on July 1 to find the victim had died and that his face, head and neck were purple. A neighbour had heard a loud argument including someone saying "f*** you, get the f*** off me", before the row "ended abruptly".
Tumilowicz gave a number of explanations as to what supposedly happened. He told the call handlers and paramedics there had been an argument and he pushed his partner who fell over. But he initially denied, to the police, there was a fight.
In his interview, he claimed Mr Duszyca was shouting at him and went to hit him so he took hold of him to calm him down before the victim stood up ’went dizzy and fainted’. Pathologist Alexander Kolar concluded the cause of death was applying pressure to the neck as well as coronary heart disease, Birmingham Live reports.
He stated there would have to have been at least 15 to 30 seconds of pressure, if not "minutes of sustained pressure", to Mr Duszyca’s neck to develop the signs of asphyxia that he showed.
Ultimately Tumoliwicz accepted he had placed him in a chokehold similar to the one he was witnessed carrying out previously. Sandip Patel KC, prosecuting, had said: "In March the defendant used some form of chokehold. In an interview, he was asked about this and he says ’I got the idea from a Kung Fu movie, that’s why I used it’."
But Tumoliwicz’s lawyer argued he immediately showed remorse at the scene in Solihull by saying "that’s really sad", when it was confirmed he had died. Brian St. Louis KC, defending, also argued Tumoliwicz did not intend to kill or even cause really serious harm to Mr Duszyca.
He added his client had completed a number of qualifications whilst in custody so he could obtain work when he is eventually released, no less than two-thirds the way through the nine-year sentence.