A cheating Polish factory worker killed his British girlfriend for her life insurance policy after hatching a murder plot with his jealous secret lover and her uncle, a court was told.
Rafal Nowak is said to have killed 23-year-old business analyst Catherine Wells-Burr as she slept at the couple's new home in Chard, South Somerset, in September last year, leaving him able to access a six-figure life insurance payout and the property.
Nowak's former partner, Anna Lagwinowicz – with whom 31-year-old Nowak is said to have rekindled a romance – allegedly joined her uncle, Tadevsz Dmytryszyn, 38, in dumping Miss Wells-Burr's body in her car at a nearby roadside and setting fire to it, Bristol Crown Court heard.
The murder was the result of months of secret meetings and telephone calls between Nowak and Lagwinowicz, with Miss Wells-Burr oblivious to her part in the so-called "love triangle", the prosecution said yesterday.
The court was also told how Nowak joined Bath Spa university graduate Miss Wells-Burr at her father's house for Sunday lunch, hours before an initial murder plot was aborted at the last minute.
Jurors heard Lagwinowicz embarked on several plots to "trap" her love rival, creating fake profiles on social media from fictional male admirers and even signing up to an explicit dating website pretending to be Miss Wells-Burr.
The court was told that the trio also created a fake trail of text messages with a "mystery man", implying that Miss Wells-Burr was having an affair with an unidentified man who was responsible for her death.
But police quickly identified clues pointing to Nowak, the "bitter" and "jealous" Lagwinowicz and her doting uncle.
Opening the trial yesterday, prosecutor Richard Smith QC told the jury Miss Wells-Burr thought that, in Nowak, "she had a caring partner to share the new house with, to share potentially that bright future with". He added: "How very sadly wrong she was about Nowak."
Polish nationals Nowak, of Willow Way, Chard, Lagwinowicz, of South Street, Taunton, and Dmytryszyn, of Holway Avenue, Taunton, deny murder.
Mr Smith told the jury how the three had set out on a course of "heartless, careful planning", murdering Miss Wells-Burr in the early hours of Wednesday, September 12.
Mr Smith said Lagwinowicz had been "simmering with dissatisfaction and discontent" after a court order in January that year prevented her and Nowak from seeing each other after he had assaulted her. However, they continued to keep in contact, the prosecutor said.
"They were going to get rid of Catherine from the love triangle and then they were going to make money out of it at the same time," he said.
"Their expectations were, upon the death of Miss Wells-Burr, her life insurance company would pay out a little over £123,000. The property would be his."
He also suggested that Miss Wells-Burr was killed by Nowak in her bed, perhaps by suffocation, so as to leave no trace.
"Catherine's body was then taken to a roadside location in Chard by Lagwinowicz and Dmytryszyn," the prosecutor said. "There, at the roadside, Catherine's body was burned in her own car using petrol to ignite the flames.
"The car was deemed to be set alight at 6am on that Wednesday, by which time those three knew that Nowak would have time to leave the house, clock in at the local factory where he worked, and as the flames engulfed the car, he would be able to say: 'Not me, I'm here at work'."
Mr Smith said the three had intended to carry out their plan in the early hours of September 10, but had to postpone it at the last moment after the sleeping and therefore vulnerable Miss Wells-Burr was awoken by a chance call from a wrong number. Mr Smith claimed that the disturbance meant Nowak would not have time to kill his partner and get to work in time to secure his alibi, so the plot was called off.
Long before that night, Lagwinowicz was said to have set up fake profiles on the internet, purporting to be men who had an interest in Miss Wells-Burr, in an effort to "trap" her.
But each time, Miss Wells-Burr declined the invitations, telling them she already had a boyfriend and was uninterested in their advances, the court was told.
Undeterred, Lagwinowicz then allegedly created fake profiles on an internet dating site pretending to be Miss Wells-Burr.
Mr Smith said: "She (Lagwinowicz) set up profiles on salacious – some may say pornographic – sites, making her (Miss Wells-Burr) out to be wanting male attention to the extent that one of those false profiles not only included a picture of Miss Wells-Burr, but also pornographic pictures pretending to be her, speaking of her pornographic infatuations."
The court heard Lagwinowicz and her secret lover, Nowak, were later questioned by police about the fake profiles.
Mr Smith said: "Nowak said he had nothing to do with it. Facing the consequences, they divide, pointing the finger of blame at the other."
A mobile phone charger and love letters – written in Polish and English – were later discovered in Lagwinowicz's bin at her Taunton flat. Mr Smith said the latter referred to Lagwinowicz practising text messages she would send to Miss Wells-Burr from the mystery man.
He also described the third defendant's involvement.
"They needed a trusted, reliable, known third party to carry out what they intended to do," Mr Smith said.
"They needed another driver, and here he was: reliable uncle Tadevsz."
The court heard how Dmytryszyn and his niece went on a reconnaissance mission on September 5 to Chard in an effort, Mr Smith said, to find suitable locations to dump the car.
He said Lagwinowicz and Nowak met for breakfast in Lyme Regis, in West Dorset, the following morning to discuss the findings – despite telling police they had no meaningful relationship.
Mr Smith's opening was delayed until today, after which Miss Wells-Burr's family are due to give evidence. The trial is expected to last for up to eight weeks.
