World's Most Evil Killers - Season 4, Episode 20 - Andrzej Kunowski - Full Episode | Forensic Files

- NARRATOR: May the 22nd, 1997, Hammersmith, London. 46-year-old Trajce Koneva cycled home to meet
his 12-year-old daughter, Katerina. It was the first time the schoolgirl had ever been
home alone. - DR. YARDLEY: Her father tried to phone her and she wasn't answering
and he became quite worried so he rushed back home. And when he arrived he, couldn't get into the house.
He sees a pair of man's shoes underneath the door and this causes him concern because there's somebody
in his home who shouldn't be there. - He starts to bang on the door with all his might,
he shoves it, he kicks it, he cannot open it. Consumed by fear, he is horrified at what could be
happening to his beloved daughter. - NARRATOR: Realizing the intruder was escaping, Trajce
chased after him and came face to face with Andrzej Kunowski, an illegal immigrant from Poland.
Trajce didn't know it but he was looking into the eyes of his daughter's murderer.
- DAVID: Kunowski was a cold-blooded criminal, he had no respect for human life,
he had no respect for young girls, he had no respect for the law. - NARRATOR: Katerina's father chased after Kunowski
but the callous killer fled. A European manhunt was already in force searching for the fugitive who was wanted for charges
of sexual assaults and rapes on women and young girls in Poland. - Kunowski was known as The Beast, seldom has
a nickname been deserved more. - NARRATOR: He was a prolific pedophile and sexual predator who attacked vulnerable victims
for almost three decades and would go on to take the life of a 12-year-old girl.
This makes Andrzej Kunowski one of the world's most evil killers. - ♪ - NARRATOR: May the 22nd, 1997, Hammersmith,
West London, England. The country was in shock when news broke that a 12-year-old schoolgirl had been brutally murdered
in her own home. Katerina Koneva was followed home from school by a prolific sex offender and pedofile,
41-year-old Andrzej Kunowski. - GEOFFREY: She was beautiful, talented, promising,
and to snuff out her life was an act of inconceivable brutality, barbarity of the worst kind.
- NARRATOR: Kunowski was a wanted Polish national who'd entered the UK illegally less than seven months
before the brutal murder. He left his mark on Senior Investigating Officer, David Little.
- Kunowski was actually probably one of the worst people I've ever dealt with in my time
mainly 'cause he was so prolific. - NARRATOR: The MET Police worked tirelessly to identify
Katerina's killer. In doing so they would also bring to justice a criminal who was wanted for a string of heinous crimes in Poland.
Journalist Szymon Wyrostek was a young boy at the time of Kunowski's crimes in Poland.
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - MALE INTERPRETER: He's still remembered in our town.
He was a very dangerous criminal and an utterly depraved man. He had no regard for human life, people were there
to satisfy his wild, animalistic urges. - DAVID: He had no remorse at all, and there was nothing
that could stop him, basically, apart from being incarcerated. - NARRATOR: This killer's story begins in Warsaw,
Poland. Andrzej Miroslav Klembert was born on March the 29th, 1956. Warsaw had suffered heavily during the Second World War
and this post-war period was a difficult time for the country. Young Andrzej didn't have the easiest of childhoods.
- His parents were petty criminals; at the age of two, he went to a foster home because both of his parents
went to prison. His grandfather, we understand, was in a psychiatric ward or sexual offences as well.
- He went into the institutional care system and I think by the time he was returned to his mother quite a lot
of damage had been done. - NARRATOR: After leaving prison Andrzej's mother met and married builder Stefan Kunowski.
Andrzej took his stepfather's surname and the family set up home in Mlawa, a small town 80 miles north
of Warsaw. At first, family life appeared to be normal. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish]
- INTERPRETER: As a child Kunowski was quite short, a bit overweight, he was teased by his classmates
and he struggled to fit in. I think this had an impact on his psyche. - PAUL: He was a bit of a mother's boy, but he had
a ferocious temper and he used to respond to the taunts with explosions of anger and violence.
- NARRATOR: As well as a violent tendency, as he grew older, Kunowski became fascinated with local girls
which unnerved those around him. - GEOFFREY: His mother begins to sense that there's something
in the adolescent Kunowski that is a little unusual. She was to say later that he developed an unhealthy
appetite for sex, an unnatural sexual desire. - NARRATOR: Age 13, he first came to the attention
of the authorities for stealing. - Theft and those kind of property offenses are all
about a sense of entitlement they are about wanting something and just going and taking it, regardless
of the impact on others. So this is a very early warning sign for me. - NARRATOR: As punishment, Kunowski was sent
to juvenile detention. - I think it would have been a bit of a learning experience
for him but not a positive one. I think he would have been learning from his peers
who had also committed offenses. I think he's becoming a slightly more skilled criminal
in the time that he's there. - NARRATOR: By the age of 17, Kunowski had moved back into the family home but soon reverted to his
thieving ways and would steal money from his mother. His disturbing preoccupation with local girls
had also continued. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Few people knew what the monster
in their neighborhood was hiding, some women said there was something strange in his eyes.
- GEOFFREY: He was the sort of boy that a girl would probably not look at twice.
But at the age of 17 he clearly felt some kind of profound sexual urge and decides to attack a neighbor's
16-year-old daughter. He drags her into the bushes and rapes her. - DR. YARDLEY: This is a very early age to be committing
this kind of offense and it's very important that we realize that you don't go from a healthy individual one day,
with normal psychological functioning, to a rapist the next, there would have been an escalation of behavior.
- NARRATOR: The 16-year-old victim was able to identify her neighbor Kunowski as her rapist.
Two other local girls also came forward, having been attacked in similar circumstances, and one
of these was added to the indictment against Kunowski. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
It would be the first rape conviction of many. - GEOFFREY: In 1976, he's released from prison, he's now 20.
He's spruced himself up a bit, given to dressing quite well. - PAUL: He also earned the nickname of Little Doctor,
which involved his rather exaggerated habit of clicking his heels and slightly bowing whenever he met someone.
- GEOFFREY: But don't let anyone be fooled by that, this is a man who has nothing in mind but rape.
Within a month he commits the next attack, this time it's a 24-year-old woman. - NARRATOR: Kunowski was apprehended
and returned to prison for another nine months for the rape. However, it was only a temporary respite
for the community. - GEOFFREY: He was only sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.
A young man who's already served three years in prison for rape--was that not taken into account?
Was there no suggestion that perhaps we have the beginnings of a serial rapist on our hands?
- NARRATOR: Once again, prison time didn't curb the devious sexual desires in Kunowski, instead, it only
seemed to ignite them, and the 22-year-old went on to attack more women and young girls
in the area. - In 1978 he committed rapes in June, July, August, September, October, and November,
sometimes, on one occasion, up to four rapes in a month. He was totally prolific and probably felt he was
untouchable. - [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Kunowski would typically attack a woman
and then choke her. He had a specific method to lure his victims in. First, he would call out to a woman from his car
and as she'd approach him and lean in he would wind up the window, trapping her.
He would then approach her from behind and very brutally rape her. His victims were extremely intimidated and later
couldn't remember his face. Which shows just how brutal and how aggressive this monster, The Beast from Mlawa, was.
- NARRATOR: By the end of 1978, Kunowski had brutally attacked at least 24 victims.
On the 22nd of December, he forced a girl into a cellar holding a razor to her ear before raping her.
She was just 11 years old. - Kunowski's record is one of escalation, as he grows older
with more experience of how he can get away with these attacks and with better opportunities,
he can spot for these attacks, and it also reflects his mounting lust. It's an escalating graph of him getting more, and more,
and more dangerous. - NARRATOR: In January, 1979, his reign of terror halted when authorities convicted Kunowski for some
of the rapes he'd committed during the previous year. But being behind bars in a male prison still didn't
stop him offending. - DAVID: He was a very prolific sex offender, he had also raped a cellmate in prison, he had no remorse whatsoever.
- NARRATOR: In April, 1979 Kunowski was almost three months into a sentence at Warszawa Wola
Detention Prison, Poland, for a series of brutal rapes on young girls and women.
Bored of prison life, Kunowski didn't intend to stay behind bars, he was planning a great escape.
- Kunowski's in prison and decides that he wishes not to be and saws through the bars of his cell to get out.
It almost defies belief, I mean, here is a serial rapist who seems to be able to escape at will.
Needless to say, no sooner has he done so, than he rapes again. - NARRATOR: On the 8th of May, 1979,
police intercepted him 85 miles away in the city of Lodz. Desperate to avoid re-arrest,
Kunowski took a young girl hostage with an axe. After a tense standoff, police succeeded in bringing him
back into custody. And after three months he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Prusków,
but once again he managed to free himself. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: He saws through the bars of the
psychiatric hospital and breaks out. - NARRATOR: Kunowski stole two cars and fled across the country.
But he was eventually pursued by the police and crashed one of the stolen cars into a house
near Jadów. He was immediately arrested and taken back into custody on the morning of August the 24th, 1979.
There, he awaited trial. - DR. YARDLEY: Prison is just a bit of a revolving door for him
at this point in his life. When he's spending time in prison he's learning from other people, he's ruminating, he's fantasizing,
he's planning his next attack because that's all that matters to him. - NARRATOR: Authorities took a tougher stance in 1980,
when Kunowski was faced with over 70 charges, predominantly for sex offenses and rape against
women and children. The litany of charges also included escape from a police convoy and attempted murder.
- Finally his crimes catch up with him and he's effectively sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
- NARRATOR: On hearing the verdict, the prosecutor, Valdemas Marczewski said he'd hoped to separate
Kunowski from society for longer, as he was certain he would go on to rape again,
perhaps even start killing. Five years later, an additional 15 years were added in recognition of the brutality Kunowski had shown
to one of his young victims. Kunowski was now facing 30 years behind bars. - DR. YARDLEY: At this point in Poland's history, their prisons
are massively overcrowded, the actual conditions in these prisons would have been absolutely horrendous.
- NARRATOR: Kunowski was desperate to get out and wrote to the Polish authorities.
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: He claims that his cell mates treated
him badly, that they humiliated him psychologically and physically, that he was beaten.
At some point his teeth got knocked out. Kunowski complains that he had his throat slit.
- NARRATOR: While Kunowski's letters had no effect, a momentous announcement by the Polish parliament
in 1989 would have a significant impact on the 33-year-old's future. To mark the end of communism, an amnesty act was passed,
which resulted in the reduction of prison sentences. Kunowski used this to his advantage.
On the 17th of January, 1990 the court in Osten delivered a decision allowing him to be considered for parole.
He walked free the following year after demonstrating good behavior. - DR. YARDLEY: There was an absolute failure on the part of
the Polish criminal justice system because he was a serial offender and when somebody is constantly
making that decision time and time again to harm other people they're not going to simply decide to stop
one day. - NARRATOR: Despite his criminal background, Kunowski's family were keen to help their son get back
on his feet. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: With the help of his family he bought
himself a delivery van, and he was living in a flat which his parents bought him on Tuwima Street in Mlawa.
Kunowski started training at the local market, there he met a woman who would become his future partner.
What the woman had in common with his victims is a considerable age difference, she was ten years his junior.
They would go on to have a daughter together. - [speaking Polish] - NARRATOR: However, despite setting up home
with his partner and her six-year-old son, Kunowski still couldn't contain his devious and aggressive behavior
and continued to prey upon vulnerable women without his partner's knowledge. She soon became aware of his violent tendencies.
- GEOFFREY: Eventually, he attacks her, and also, for good measure, he attacks her son.
Trying to be someone conventional and respectable simply doesn't suit Kunowski's character.
Underneath that polished exterior is a poisonous toad of a little man who thinks nothing of destroying women
and anyone he may come across. - NARRATOR: The relationship broke down and Kunowski's partner left him.
She would soon discover she was pregnant, and vowed to protect the child, a baby girl, from him.
Meanwhile Kunowski had become obsessed with a new type of victim, so-called latchkey children.
- DR. YARDLEY: At this point in his offending history he begins to target young girls
who are home alone, latchkey children. Their mum, their dad might be out at work and they
are in the house on their own. Now, this is really significant for me because he's starting
to engage in some kind of stalking behavior and so this does suggest to me that his offending is becoming
more sophisticated and he's becoming a lot more dangerous. - NARRATOR: Soon reports of school children being attacked
spread in and around the county of Mlawa and as far away as Warsaw. Parents were terrified of leaving their children alone.
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: At the time, I was in primary school.
My classmates and I were accompanied to the nearby school by our parents or grandparents.
- SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Where we were allowed to go was restricted.
At that time I didn't know his name, I just knew that he was an older man. We were told that if we saw a man acting strange,
we should scream and go straight home. - NARRATOR: In 1992, Kunowski continued to prey
on vulnerable children in both Mlawa and Warsaw. Despite being arrested several times, by 1995
he was free to resume his attacks on young girls. Targeting an 11-year-old in February
and abducting another in March. On May the 16th that year, he struck again. - GEOFFREY: Kunowski is on the streets of Warsaw,
and once again targets a young girl coming back from school. He watches her, sees that she lets herself in to her flat
with a latchkey, there doesn't appear to be anyone in except her. He knocks on the door, forces his way in and then
engages her in a conversation, which is bizarre to say the least, in which, "Can you keep a secret?"
he says to her. She's obviously slightly bewildered by all this. And then he asks her to kiss him and then of course
he starts to suffocate her, he pulls her blouse over her head and he attacks her.
- NARRATOR: Kunowski then fled the scene, and the 10-year-old girl bravely raised the alarm.
- She shouts, screams after him and he is in fact caught. - NARRATOR: Linking other similar crimes in the area,
the police were able to put Kunowski on trial. The primary charge was rape of an 11-year-old girl.
There was great interest from the local media. - SZYMON: [speaking Polish] - INTERPRETER: Journalists named Kunowski The Beast
from Mlawa, a very appropriate description when it comes to Kunowski. - NARRATOR: It seemed that justice would finally
be served however there was to be a twist of fate. - Kunowski pulls one of the great stunts, he persuades
the prison authorities that he's got a very sore left hip and that it very badly inhibits his movement.
It is complete and utter balderdash, but nevertheless, the Little Doctor is quite convincing.
- DAVID: In June, 1996 he was actually released from prison on three months' parole in order to get a hip operation.
And he was left free to go and sort it out for himself. - NARRATOR: The man named The Beast never did
have his operation. Instead he embarked on a 1,000-mile trip, he was London-bound.
- I think Kunowski reaches the point where he realizes he needs a blank slate so I think there is that urge
in him to start somewhere else and to start looking for a new victim pool. - In his last years in Poland, the press had taken
to giving him a nickname, "The Beast." Well, The Beast had arrived in England and it was only
a matter of time before he would strike again. - DAVID: He arrived in October, 1996, at Victoria Station.
From that moment on he just disappeared into the UK. As an illegal immigrant he was totally below the radar
and because of that his DNA was not taken, his fingerprints were not taken, we had no knowledge of who Kunowski was.
- PAUL: At that time there was tens of thousands of European people arriving. It was impossible for the authorities to keep track
of this and very easy for Kunowski to disappear into the subculture of London, where jobs are paid
cash-in-hand, where rent is paid cash-in-hand, and no questions are asked. - GEOFFREY: The fact that he is an illegal immigrant
with a disgusting record of crime in his native Poland is known to no one. - PAUL: It's difficult to imagine Kunowski could even had
stood out in a crowd, he was just an everyday bloke in the street. And in the accommodation in which he flitted between,
in various bedsits and flats, people were coming and going. It was a perfect cover for him to get up to what he wanted
to do and to resume his attacks on women. - NARRATOR: Just seven months after arriving in the UK,
Kunowski's perverse desire for attacking children was once again ignited. He was on the prowl for another victim and the
41-year-old reverted to a familiar M.O., following so-called latchkey children home from school
in the knowledge that they would be alone. And it wasn't long before he struck again.
- PAUL: Kunowski had spotted Katerina Koneva. I suspect that he did his homework and that he knew
that she left school and would arrive back at her flat in Hammersmith. - DAVID: Katerina was a 12-year-old girl
who'd come over from Macedonia with both of her parents, Trajce and Jackie, and her younger brother.
She was studying at Holland Park School, she was well-liked, she was a bubbly young girl.
Her family were here to learn English and to escape from Macedonia, effectively, as they wanted a better life.
- NARRATOR: On May the 22nd, 1997, as Katerina made her way home from school she couldn't know
she was being followed. - DR. YARDLEY: This is very similar to the offense that we know of in Poland,
so this would have been planned because this would have involved some kind of stalking.
And I've heard stalking described as murder in slow motion and that's exactly what it is in this case.
- NARRATOR: When the 12-year-old arrived at her flat, Kunowski was close behind.
In a twist of fate this was the first time Katerina had ever been home alone. - Her dad should have been at home but unfortunately
he was delayed at his English lessons and so he was late. Katerina went home from school as normal,
let herself in, and we assume that Kunowski knocked on her door, there was no sign of forced entry at all,
and the door was locked internally after he'd entered the house. - GEOFFREY: I think she would have opened the door,
she was a trusting young girl. What she was doing, however, was letting in a monster.
He takes her into the living room of the flat and barricades the door with a chair.
- PAUL: From that moment, inside the flat, what happened between killer and victim only the killer knows.
But he clearly had grabbed her and began to choke her with a cord he found to hand.
Pushing her down and choking her at the same time as he attacked her. She must have been screaming, but in a flat
at that time of the day, no one could hear it. - NARRATOR: At some point Katerina's father, Tracje,
had returned home but the door was locked from the inside and Katerina did not answer.
Becoming concerned, Tracje looked through the letterbox. - He saw Katerina lying on the floor, he then saw
beneath the door, basically what he describes as two black shoes. He then obviously realized that something was wrong.
- GEOFFREY: He's horrified, he starts to bang on the door with all his might, he shoves it, he kicks it,
he cannot open it. Consumed by fear, he is horrified at what could be happening to his beloved daughter.
- DAVID: Whilst that was happening he became aware that the person inside had moved to the front of the house,
effectively, and naturally assumed that the person was leaving by the first-floor window.
So he ran downstairs and out to the front and saw Kunowski actually coming out of the window
and land in the front garden. He then confronted Kunowski, who just basically stared at him.
- NARRATOR: Getting his first look at the intruder, Tracje noticed a spot of blood on his face.
As Kunowski fled the scene, Tracje had only a split second to plan his next move.
His instinct was to chase after him. - As they went down the street Kunowski turned
and shouted to passersby, "Help me, help me!" And two workmen could see that something
was happening here and decided to intervene. - DR. YARDLEY: He's actually making out that he's the victim,
that somebody's after him, and passersby in the streets basically help him. - NARRATOR: The well-meaning members of the public
held Tracje back, allowing Kunowski to get a head start. Tracje managed to break free and continued the pursuit.
The chase came to an abrupt halt when Kunowski pulled out a knife. Surrendering, Tracje rushed back to check on his daughter.
- After Kunowski had run away from Tracje, he wanted to get away from the scene of the crime as fast
as he possibly could. There was a young lady driving her car down the street at the time, he stopped in front of her
and threatened her with a knife and made her get out of her car. - NARRATOR: He sped off in the hijacked vehicle
before abandoning it half a mile away on Shepherd's Bush Road. He then boarded a bus destined for Hammersmith Broadway.
- He gets off the bus and disappears into the crowd. Once again in the wind, beneath the radar.
- NARRATOR: With Kunowski on the run, Tracje had made it back to his flat. The scene behind the door would devastate
his family's life forever. - PAUL: When he came back he had to break the door down
to get in past the barricades that Kunowski had across the door, and there found his daughter with this cord
so tight around her neck, lying on the floor. He was trying desperately to pull at this cord
and he couldn't manage it so he went to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife to try and cut it open.
- DAVID: He was screaming for help, obviously, and one of the neighbors went to help him, police were called.
- And by the time they arrived he was desperately trying to revive her. Paramedics took over, but without any success.
- NARRATOR: Katerina had been murdered. The cause of the 12-year-old's death was strangulation.
The police needed to act fast to find the culprit. - Most killings happen in a domestic scene and often
it's the last person or the person there who turns out to be the killer. - Unfortunately Tracje has to be considered as a suspect
and was being questioned as such. - The first time his wife finds him, he is a prisoner.
Her daughter is dead and her husband is accused of killing her. The impact on her must have been devastating.
- NARRATOR: With no witnesses to the murder itself, police appeal to the local community
for information. Seven people would come forward having witnessed the chase but their evidence had flaws.
A number of the witnesses had assumed that Kunowski was actually a victim being chased and so descriptions
of him became muddled with descriptions of Tracje. The police were no closer to catching the actual killer.
Whilst police artists worked to produce a composite sketch of the man seen running away detectives
had a stroke of luck when a local builder's yard checked their security camera. - There is CCTV evidence of the two running past
an alleyway, first Kunowski and then, obviously, being... chased by Tracje. - NARRATOR: The CCTV proved Tracje's claims
that he had chased an intruder away from his home. At the murder scene, forensic teams found two significant clues.
- GEOFFREY: One was a fingerprint on the windowsill which did not belong to any member of the family.
The other was a single hair on a cardigan of Katerina's. - NARRATOR: But there was one major obstacle.
- Kunowski's fingerprints weren't on file anywhere in Britain and so any conventional method
of trying to find the offender using either fingerprints or DNA wasn't available.
Kunowski was a ghost. - NARRATOR: Detectives working to create a profile of the murderer couldn't begin to guess the true
depravity of this killer, or how widespread his crimes were. - DR. YARDLEY: It was inevitable that Kunowski was going to kill
because he enjoyed the feelings of power, he felt that he was entitled to do what he wanted
with his victims. - NARRATOR: Once again Kunowski was at large. The killer moved towards the West Midlands seeking
employment in fruit farms, but he soon went back to his thieving ways. - It wasn't long before he had his fingers in the till
and he was arrested for stealing from his employer. He clearly thought he was bulletproof.
- NARRATOR: When police examined Kunowski's forged passport they discovered his visa had expired,
and he was detained in Oxfordshire on immigration offenses. The murder of Katerina one month earlier
still remained unsolved. And whilst forensic evidence had been taken from the murder scene, there was no match on the national
DNA database. Immigration officials didn't know they had a killer in custody and the killer had no intention of waiting
to be caught. - Had the law at that time allowed the immigration authorities to take a DNA sample from someone
they suspected was an illegal immigrant they would have been able to say to the police in Hammersmith
that the man they had in their custody was actually the man who had murdered Katerina.
- NARRATOR: Unaware that they had a killer in custody, immigration authorities granted Kunowski
temporary release whilst his case was being considered. - PAUL: He was in need of a new identity,
so when he was released from the detention center, he managed to procure a fake Portugese passport
and of course, again, it put another distance between himself and his criminal past.
- NARRATOR: In September, 1997, Kunowski's application was turned down and he appealed.
The serial escapee had no intention of returning for his immigration hearing. By the time the appeal was rejected in December, 1997,
he had disappeared. He would live life under the radar for the next four years. - DAVID: I have no idea where he was for those years.
He was using aliases, he may have been arrested and dealt with under another name somewhere else
totally different. But I find it inconceivable that he did not commit other offenses.
- NARRATOR: In 2001, four years after the brutal killing of Katerina, Kunowski had made his way back to West London.
- GEOFFREY: Kunowski's brass neck knew no bounds, he even registers with the NHS
under his assumed name of Dias, for a heart bypass operation. It's breathtaking audacity.
- NARRATOR: The following year, after a period of recuperation, The Beast was fighting-fit and back
on the streets of West London. - Now he's living in a room in Acton working part time
as a tailor, little odd jobs here and there. And yet again targeting vulnerable young women.
At one point, he's hovering outside Ealing Broadway Underground Station and he spies a young Korean woman, 21,
looking at a board which has advertisements for rooms to let. - DAVID: He went up to her, offered her assistance,
told her that he would help her find somewhere to live, she'd not long been in the country and her English
was actually very distorted. So he offered to take her back to where he was staying,
his bedsit, and help her find accomodation. - DR. YARDLEY: When Kunowski decided to lure this student
back to his flat, I think there was an intention to kill, because he'd killed before,
I think he'd enjoyed killing before, he'd gotten away with it before. So I think there was a real arrogance in him
at this point in time. - Once he got her to his bedsit he overpowered her, tied her up, and raped her.
- Kunowski was now at the height of his brutality as an experienced sexual predator and brutal
in his aggression against women. And he attacked this Korean student with a frenzy.
- To actually be taken, tied up in somebody else's home and then raped is a horrendous ordeal.
She was estranged to the country, she'd not long been in this country, she'd thought she'd been befriended
by somebody who was going to help her. He abused that trust, he abused her. - NARRATOR: During the three-hour ordeal
the defenseless student's survival instincts kicked in. - DR. YARDLEY: This young woman, she was very smart, she was able
to basically talk her way out of it, but she was able to say to him, "Well, it's okay, I'll call you tomorrow,"
or, "I want to see you again." So she was appealing to a kind of inherent narcissism
within him. And it saved her life, it was an incredibly brave thing to do. - Kunowski, in his vanity and arrogance, thought that
would be alright and that she would actually phone him the following day. The young Korean woman goes straight to the police.
For the first time Kunowski's made a real blunder. - NARRATOR: By committing the offense in his own flat,
Kunowski had effectively led police to his front door. However, the police still had no idea this was
Katerina's killer. In May, 2003 he was convicted of the rape and received nine years imprisonment
at HMP Belmarsh. When officials took Kunowski's DNA it sparked some interesting developments.
- GEOFFREY: A number of things have happened, his DNA is on file, his fingerprints are on file.
The review of Katerina's killing is initiated, and lo and behold, the DNA matches.
- The most damning DNA evidence was the DNA on the hair on Katerina's cardigan and also a fingerprint
as Kunowski jumped out of the window. Both of those are irrefutable, absolute pieces of evidence.
- PAUL: When MET found that they had not just a rapist but a significant murderer in a case that they hadn't
been able to solve for six years, they then checked in international files. And suddenly it flashed up, to the astonishment
of the London detectives, that Kunowski had this massive record for two decades of attacks
in Poland. - The Polish authorities were very helpful with their assistance and the DNA proved that he'd committed
offenses in Poland as well. - NARRATOR: The trial for the murder of Katerina Koneva
began at The Old Bailey in March, 2004. Both Senior Investigating Officer David Little
and Court Correspondent, Paul Cheston witnessed the proceedings. - It was a very emotional trial because the family,
both Tracje and Jackie, were obviously very upset about what had happened. - PAUL: Tragedy on this nature, a particularly violent murder
in a family, often has the most destructive effect, they almost turn on themselves in a way.
And Katerina's mother and father split up. - Unfortunately, in every case where a child or anybody
has been murdered, the family assume a degree of guilt, absolutely incorrectly. Tracje expected to be home before he was.
Jackie expected Tracje to be home for their daughter arriving home. Between the two of them they both harbored a degree
of guilt for what had happened. - NARRATOR: Tracje was face to face with his daughter's
killer once again. But this time he had to give evidence of that fateful day and the heartbreaking decision he made.
- PAUL: The moment that had the most impact on me was just how he explained how he'd stumbled across this attack
on his own daughter in his own flat and was confronted with the two-horned dilemma of: chase the attacker
or tend to his stricken daughter. And that was explained in his own words through
a whole veil of tears in his eyes and choking in his throat, it was heartrending evidence from the witness box.
- NARRATOR: The heartless killer, Kunowski, appeared unmoved. - DAVID: When Kunowski was in the docket court he showed
no remorse, he just stayed there, listened to the evidence totally without any emotion whatsoever.
- NARRATOR: It took the jury of four women and eight men less than three hours to decide.
Kunowski was found guilty of Katerina's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment
by the Common Serjeant of London Judge Peter Beaumont QC. - Sentencing Kunowski for the murder of Katerina
the judge said, and I quote, "You took the life of a child "who was just beginning to enjoy what this country
"had to offer. "It was a life of great promise and you ended it in circumstances of great violence and terror."
- NARRATOR: Kunowski's sentence was bittersweet for Katerina's parents. - DAVID: They'd lost their daughter,
a 12-year-old girl. At the time of conviction Tracje felt there was closure and it had been dealt with. Jackie didn't.
She felt cheated, she just felt that nothing could be done to make amends for what he had done.
- NARRATOR: Whilst Kunowski began his sentence at HMP Frankland, Europe's media descended
on the small village of Mlawa. - GEOFFREY: In Poland, Kunowski's mother is, naturally, approached by the media,
and she confesses that she never thought that he was entirely normal but refuses
to accept that he actually is a monster. - NARRATOR: Kunowski wasn't in prison for long.
Five years into his life sentence, he died of heart failure in the Durham Prison, aged 53.
- When we discovered that Kunowski had died in prison the first thing we did was to go and tell the families.
And I do know that Jackie felt cheated by his death, she wanted him to burn in hell, she said.
She did feel that he'd got the easy way out. - NARRATOR: Even after his death countless victims
are still living a life sentence imposed by him. - INTERPRETER: This kind of experience had an impact
on these people, it changed their life and behavior entirely. - DAVID: He continually offended whilst he was at large
and I'm certain he must have committed other offenses. - GEOFFREY: We cannot know how dangerous Kunowski was.
This was, literally, a predator on the loose. He could have committed literally hundreds of attacks
and we shall never ever know for sure. - NARRATOR: He was a prolific sex offender and pedophile
who caused torment and fear across Europe for almost three decades before taking the life of a bright,
young girl who had her whole future ahead of her. He showed no remorse for any of his actions
and that's what makes Andrzej Kunowski one of the world's most evil killers. - ♪
♪♪ - [swishing sound]

41-year-old Andrzej Kunowski was a prolific paedophile who entered the UK illegally in 1996.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Katerina Koneva was murdered by Andrzej Kunowski, a prolific sex offender, leading to a complex investigation and emotional trial.

Key points

Kunowski's Escalating Crimes. Andrzej Kunowski's history of violence and sexual offenses escalates over the years.
The Murder of Katerina Koneva. A 12-year-old girl is brutally murdered in her own home, shocking the nation.
The Beast's Arrival in England. Kunowski, known as The Beast, arrives in the UK unnoticed, setting the stage for further atrocities.
The Chilling Stalking. Katerina was stalked before her tragic murder, highlighting the horror of stalking.
A Father's Desperate Attempt. Tracje returns home to find the door locked and fears for his daughter.
Kunowski's Capture and Release. Kunowski was arrested but released, allowing him to continue his crimes.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was looking into the eyes of his daughter's murderer.

Trajce Koneva confronts the intruder in his home.

1:04WatchAug 17, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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