Daniel Pelka’s body released to father’s custody

The body of murdered Daniel Pelka has been released to his father’s custody, paving the way for the child to be buried in
Poland.

Daniel Pelka: Body has been released to father's custody. Picture: PA

A clerk for the coroner for Coventry and Warwickshire confirmed the four-year-old’s remains had been released to Eryk Pelka, who lives in the country and has previously told of how he wants his son buried close by so he can visit the grave.

This month, Daniel’s mother, Magdelena Luczak, 27, and stepfather Mariusz Krezolek, 34, were jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years each for what the judge called the
“incomprehensible” murder of the defenceless youngster.

After a nine-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, a jury unanimously convicted the “callous and wretched” couple of murdering the boy, who died of a head injury in March 2012.

Mr Pelka, who lived with Luczak for the first year of Daniel’s life, walked out on her and returned to Poland after he said she cheated on him in 2009.

Luczak and Krezolek are both Poles, but Daniel was born in the UK and lived at the couple’s home in Coventry, never having been to his parents’ homeland.

Over six months, the couple starved Daniel, fed him salt, brutally beat him and finally left him to die alone in the dark in the locked boxroom where he was forced to sleep.

Despite seeing a hospital doctor for a broken arm, arriving at school with bruises and facial injuries, and teachers repeatedly witnessing Daniel fishing in bins and stealing from children’s lunchboxes for scraps of food, there was no intervention by any of the agencies responsible for child protection.

A serious case review by Coventry Safeguarding Children Board is expected to publish its findings next month.