A Polish woman convicted in 2013 of murdering her son in a notorious case that shocked the UK has been found dead in her cell in Derby, England.
Magdalena Łuczak was discovered lifeless at 7:15 am on Tuesday, prison authorities have confirmed.
The death took place on the eve of her late son Daniel Pelka’s birthday. Daniel Pelka died in Coventry at his mother’s home on 3 March 2012, aged 4.
A British court found that Łuczak (now 29) and her partner Mariusz Krezolek (36) had sytematically starved and tortured the boy over a protracted period.
He died following a severe blow to the head from Krezolek, after which the child was left in a tiny room without light for over 24 hours.
Both Łuczak and Krezolek were given minimum sentences of 30 years in August 2013. Last December, lawyers representing the couple appealed against the sentence, claming that it was excessive. However, judges upheld the sentence.
Meanwhile, several UK sources have already described Łuczak’s death a suicide, but a Ministry of Justice spokesman has stressed that “there will be an investigation by the independent prisons and probation ombudsman.”
In June 2015, a disciplinary panel found that Daniel Pelka’s doctor had “failed to act adequately” after concerns were voiced by staff at the young boy’s school in Coventry.\
