Alleged Warsaw beheader 'chose his victim randomly'

Former librarian Kajetan P. (surname withheld under Polish privacy laws) was extradited to Poland on 26 February, having fled to Malta by train and ferry following the discovery of the victim's body.

According to Przemysław Nowak, a spokesman for the Warsaw Prosecutors' Office, Kajetan P. was questioned on Saturday by two prosecutors, in the presence of a lawyer representing the victim's family.

The victim, Katarzyna J., was a foreign language teacher who taught at her Warsaw apartment.

“The fact that the victim ended up being Katarzyna J. was completely down to chance,” Nowak told reporters on Wednesday.

“They had never met before.”

Kajetan P. allegedly told prosecutors he had been trying to purge himself of weaknesses, and that several years ago he had embarked on a programme of what he described as “perfecting himself,” both physically and intellectually.

This apparently involved rigorous physical exercise, fasting and cutting himself off from family members, among other tasks.

Nowak, allegedly quoting the suspect, said the actual murder was designed to “eliminate a weakness,” namely “the belief that human life is worth more than a pig or a mosquito.”

Kajetan J. allegedly killed the teacher with a knife, shortly after she let him into her Warsaw flat. According to Nowak, he later tried to burn the dismembered body in his own apartment, after a taxi driver's suspicions were aroused. He then fled the country. He was apparently planning to lie low in Tunisia or Libya. (nh/pk)

Source: PAP/RMF FM