Kasia Bernas

Kasia Bernas was allegedly trussed up like a chicken and beaten to death at a flat in Andrew Reid House, Wandsworth and then dumped in London, wrapped up in a quilt, but her body has never been found.

A woman, an illegal immigrant, was arrested on suspicion of her murder in May 2001 but the charges against her were dropped after she admitted obstructing the Coroner from the execution of his duty by preventing him from holding an inquest into her death. However, she was convicted in 2002 of helping to dispose of her body.

She blamed her lover, an estate agent, for the murder. It was noted that the estate agent had also faced unrelated charges for sexual assault and that one of his victims claimed that he had also murdered Suzy Lamplugh. However, those charges were dropped after the judge said that he could not be tried fairly.

At the trial of the estate agent's lover for helping to dispose of Kasia Bernas's body, it was heard that Kasia Bernas had come to England in 1990 with her boyfriend who was the brother of the estate agent's lover. It was said that whilst Kasia Bernas was sharing a flat with her boyfriend that she had been introduced to the estate agent who was involved in collecting the rents in the flat.

It was heard then, that Kasia Bernas's boyfriend and the estate agent's lover went back to Poland for a short while, leaving Kasia Bernas to collect the rents from the people in the rooms in the flat. However, it was said that when they returned in September 1990, they found that Kasia Bernas had gone and taken the rent money that she had collected with her and could not be found.

It was said that Kasia Bernas had moved to 42 The Heights in Charlton.

The court heard that estate agent's lover was angry with Kasia Bernas but couldn't find her although it was claimed that she later found her by chance and then persuaded her to go back to the flat in Wandsworth where she was living with some other people, including her boyfriend, the estate agent.

Once back at the flat in Wandsworth, it was heard that the estate agent's lover began to pressure Kasia Bernas and said to her, 'Can you stop lying and tell us the truth, you whore'.

It was later said that the estate agent called one of the other men into his lover's room on 24 January 1991 and showed him a piece of paper which he said was a confession that had been extracted from Kasia Bernas.

The man said that he then saw the estate agent shouting at Kasia Bernas and then heard him tell his lover to hit her. It was then alleged that Kasia Bernas died following an assault and was then disposed of.

It was heard that over the next seven years following Kasia Bernas's disappearance that the estate agent's lover twice confided with friends that the estate agent had murdered Kasia Bernas and that they had then both disposed of her body.

At the trial it was said that the estate agent's lover had said that she had come back to the flat at some point and found Kasia Bernas screaming and lying face down on the bed with her hands tied and that Kasia Bernas was screaming and moaning and covered in blood and that when Kasia Bernas stopped screaming she found that she was dead. The court heard then that the estate agents 's lover had claimed that when she tried to run away that the estate agent ran after her and stopped her and that she was frightened into helping him dispose of her body.

It was said then that the estate agent's lover said that they then wrapped up Kasia Bernas's body in a quilt and that the estate agent then carried it downstairs and put it in a car and that they both then drove around London looking for a place to dispose of it before eventually throwing it out of the car.

It was also heard that another woman, an ex-wife of the estate agent, had said that the estate agent had confessed to her about disposing of Kasia Bernas's body after his lover killed her, but that her evidence was determined to be unreliable after she was convicted of perverting the course of justice in another case in July 2002 and that she could not be put forward as a witness of truth.

It was also said that the estate agent's ex-wife had alleged that the estate agent's lover had confessed to her daughter in 1999 after she had a major falling-out with the estate agent, saying that she had come back to the flat in Wandsworth to find 'Kasia lying naked on a bed, trussed up like a chicken, covered in blood and screaming'.

At her trial for helping to dispose of Kasia Bernas's body, the estate agent’s lover said that the estate agent assaulted and probably killed Kasia Bernas.

In May 2001 the estate agent said that the charges against him were complete fabrications.

At the estate agent's lovers’ trial, the judge said, 'You pleaded guilty to an offence, which I regard as very serious for two reasons. Firstly, by committing this offence, you enabled a murderer to get away with his crime unpunished. Secondly you subjected Kasia's family to years of anxiety about what happened to her and didn't give them a chance to give her a proper burial. I regard those matters as extremely serious. People who assist murderers to dispose of bodies can expect long sentences in prison'. He then sentenced her to two years imprisonment.