A WRONGFUL CONVICTION

The wrongful conviction of Patryk Pachecka and his friend Grzegorz Szal is a cautionary tale for anyone working in forensic science and crime scene investigation. Patryk and Grzegorz were found guilty of Gregorz Pietricki’s murder in December 2017 at the Old Bailey following a 6-week trial. They spent 4 years in prison. 

The case was brought to the charity Inside Justice by Patryk's barrister Siobhan Grey KC after the two men were convicted. Siobhan had a number of concerns about the case and Louise Shorter, Inside Justice's Founder, agreed to help by putting her in touch with Advisory Panel member, Trustee and BPA expert Jo Millington.

Working in collaboration with two forensic pathologists, Professor Jack Crane CBE and Dr Claas Buschmann, and Patryk's solicitor Jason Lartey, the team reinvestigated the evidence against the two men and the case was referred back to the Court of Appeal. They quoshed the convictions and a retrial was ordered.

During the retrial, in 2021, it was established that the location of the fatal attack had been misidentified during the initial investigation. It was not inside a flat, as the police & prosecution had originally believed, but outside 60 metres away, at a time and location that Patryk and Grzegorz could not be. 

Basia Cummings of Tortoise Media follows the story of the two men and interviews the team who worked on their case in the Slow News podcast ''Wronged'.

Visit Inside Justice for more information about the case here or download and listen to the story of this remarkable miscarriage of justice (around 50mins).