Family devastated as police name Polish murder victim

THE family of a Polish man who was found murdered in his Leith flat have been left “devastated” by his death as detectives today appealed for friends and former colleagues of the victim to contact police.

Police have named the dead man as 34-year-old Maciej Ciania, who moved to Scotland from Poland around three years ago, following the discovery of his body on Saturday morning.

Mr Ciania’s flatmate was the last person to see him alive on Thursday morning before going away on a short trip and returning to find the body in their rented main-door flat in Dickson Street.

Lothian and Borders Police liaised with their counterparts in Poland after confirming the victim’s identity late on Sunday night. Polish police broke the news to Mr Ciania’s family early yesterday morning.

His mother and father, who live in a remote rural community, had believed their son was “living happily” in the Capital.

Detectives are now trying to build up a picture of Mr Ciania’s lifestyle, as well as his movements from the last week.

Officers also confirmed that they were investigating reports of men arguing outside the flat on Friday night.

Detective Superintendent Allan Jones said: “We’re looking for anyone who came into contact with Mr Ciania between Thursday morning and Saturday morning. We’re also looking for anyone who knows of his movements in the previous week and beyond that.

“Our aim is to try and build up a detailed picture of the victim and his general lifestyle because we don’t really know much about him at this point.

“We’re looking for any friends, acquaintances, colleagues or anyone else who knows him.

“His flatmate is a Lithuanian man who speaks fluent Polish. They met in November when they were both working for a car hire company. They became friends and moved into this flat.

“Mr Ciania’s mum and dad live in a remote rural area of Poland. He also has a brother and a sister. We were able to identify Mr Ciania on Sunday at around 10pm, and we contacted the Polish consulate to get in touch with the family. They were informed about his death by the Polish police at our request.

“His family are devastated over their loss. This is a man who has come to a foreign country, trying to seek out a living, and he has become the victim of a violent and horrific attack.

“The family have not been able to offer any reason why this might have happened.”

A postmortem was carried out on the body of Mr Ciania, who was unemployed, on Sunday.