Funeral held for mother and child knifed to death

AROUND 200 people yesterday attended the funeral of a mother and her child killed in a knife attack in Jersey.

Marta Dominika De La Haye, 34, and five-year-old Julia Frances died in St Helier on 14 August. Her friend, Izabela Rzeszowska, 30, her children Kinga, five, and Kacper, two, and her father Marek Garstka, 56, were also killed.

The head of the Catholic Church in Jersey, Monsignor Nicholas France, said the hour-and-a-quarter-long mass was conducted in both Polish and English and was “very poignant”.

Marta’s husband and Julia’s father, Craig de la Haye, gave a reading along with other members of her family. He said their bodies were carried into St Thomas’ Catholic Church in a white coffin which is to be taken to Poland for burial. A funeral for the other victims is to be held on Thursday.

Izabela’s husband Damian Rzeszowski, 31, is due to appear in court on 28 October charged with six murders.