Four men have been found guilty of killing a member of an organised crime group who was tortured, doused in petrol and set alight. Tomasz Samel, 45, was kidnapped in 2019 in Birmingham by three men claiming to be from Interpol, before being driven to the Liverpool area and attacked to be "taught a lesson" over the loss of cigarettes worth £1m.
Convictions at Birmingham Crown Court
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court deliberated for more than 11 hours before unanimously convicting Neil Jones and Tobiasz Kozlowski of Mr Samel's murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. Co-defendants Kevin Wooden and Kye Arthur were cleared of murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm but were found guilty of manslaughter.
Wooden, 46, of Alma Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire; Arthur, 35, of Copley Gardens, Bristol; Jones, 48, of no fixed address; and Kozlowski, 38, of Crosland Road, Kirkby, were remanded in custody for sentence on October 9. Kozlowski's wife Sandra Kozlowska, 38, and also of Crosland Road, was found guilty of assisting an offender by helping him to avoid detection by police. She was bailed and will also be sentenced on October 9.
Kidnapping and torture details
A six-week trial was told dad-of-two Mr Samel, who was the subject of an international arrest warrant, was dumped in a remote location in Lancashire and died in hospital almost three months later. Opening the crown's case in June, prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC said Mr Samel was kidnapped from his home in Raleigh Close, Handsworth, at about 8.35am on March 27, 2019.
Mr Sandhu told the court: "After he was kidnapped, he was falsely imprisoned - he was placed in a white Peugeot Boxer van and he was driven to Merseyside. In Merseyside he was tortured and he was caused really serious harm. As part of that torture his body was set on fire. After he was subjected to that torture, his body is likely to have been dumped in a remote rural location. Miraculously he was able to walk to the home of strangers who saw the state he was in and who called for an ambulance."
During his opening speech to jurors, Mr Sandhu said Mr Samel was given water after knocking at the door of a property near Bickerstaffe at 11.10pm on March 27. Mr Samel was taken to Whiston Hospital but died on June 21, 2019 as a result of his injuries. He is believed to have been naked and in a seated position when he was set alight.
Link to cigarette seizure
Alleging that Wooden and Arthur were two of three men who went to Raleigh Close in the van, Mr Sandhu told the trial: "Tomasz Samel was not an angel but he did not deserve to be tortured and to be killed." Jones and Kozlowski were alleged by the crown to have been present when Mr Samel was tortured and set on fire, while Wooden and Arthur were "recruited" to become part of the planning, Mr Sandhu told the court.
Mr Samel's killing was linked to the seizure of illicit and counterfeit cigarettes which had been smuggled into the UK from Poland, the prosecutor also said. The victim had a unit in Elkington Street, Aston, Birmingham, the court heard, where HM Revenue and Customs had seized cigarettes on February 22, 2019.
