Cambridgeshire: Son sentenced for decapitating mum and putting body in fridge

A son who cut off his mother's head with a meat cleaver and dismembered her body has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.

Ernest Grusza, 41, cut 59-year-old Wieslawa Mierzejeska into 11 pieces, wrapped her body parts in clingfilm, and put them in a cupboard and a fridge.

A jury at Cambridge Crown Court had earlier found Grusza not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

A psychiatrist told the hearing Grusza has bipolar affective disorder, also known as manic depressive illness, and that the killing occurred “in the course of a manic episode”.

A judge said Grusza’s awareness of what had happened was “limited” and that he had no previous convictions.

Grusza went to a corner shop in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, covered in blood on the morning of February 22 this year and the shopkeeper dialled 999, Mr Justice Fraser said in a written ruling.

Police attended and went with Grusza to his mother's flat and spoke to him through a window, where they could see what the judge described as an "utterly nightmarish scene".

Armed officers found Grusza with a meat cleaver and a wooden bat in his hands inside the property.

He showed the officers outside what he had done through a kitchen window.

Officers could see human body parts around the flat, which Grusza told them belonged to his mother, the judge wrote.

"He unwrapped some of the body parts, and held up her head to show them," the judge added.

Grusza, who was arrested at the scene, was described by witnesses as a "quiet and private man" with no previous convictions.

There was "no suggestion that he had ever been violent before", the judge said as he sentenced Grusza on Tuesday.

Describing the case as “extremely tragic”, Mr Justice Fraser added that the two Polish nationals were both hard-working people who had lived in the UK for a “number of years”.Mother 'had sought help'

"He believed he was Jesus Christ, and that God gave him instructions," the judge wrote.

"One of his most compelling delusions was that his mother was the devil; he was told by God to kill her, and dismember her body, in order to destroy the devil.

"He was convinced she would resurrect if he poured holy water and blood upon her dismembered body parts."

The trial was told his mother had attempted to have him sectioned under the Mental Health Act as his behaviour became increasingly concerning to those around him.

Ms Mierzejeska also attempted to seek help from a GP, the police, social services and first response services after his mental health began deteriorating from January.

"Tragically, nobody provided the help that she tried to obtain, and she was usually told either to call 111, 999 or that there was nothing that could be done," the judge said.

At one point, Grusza was taken to hospital and given a brain scan but was was released, despite having nowhere to live from February, the trial was told.

Addressing him during the sentencing hearing, the judge said: “Any trial involving the death of a person is always tragic.

“However, here, the very person seeking to obtain the help you so desperately needed, who no doubt loved you deeply, was the person who met their end at your hands.”

He said that letters Grusza sent from prison, before the trial, made it clear that he did not “understand that you had killed your mother, who I have no doubt that you loved as you describe in those letters”.