Man guilty of killing girlfriend found in a suitcase floating on canal

An “obsessively jealous” man was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering his girlfriend who may have been alive when she was stuffed into a suitcase and thrown into the Grand Union Canal.
Forklift truck driver Tomasz Kocik, 38, had been caught on CCTV on 1 May pulling the suitcase containing Marta Ligman half a mile along a towpath before returning home with wet trousers more than an hour later. The 23-year-old’s body was found in the water in west London 10 days later.
Post-mortem tests showed she died from hypothermia after suffering a
beating. There was no evidence she had drowned and the pathologist could not rule out the possibility she could have been alive when she was put into the suitcase.
Kocik, a Polish national from Harlesden, north-west London, had admitted dumping the body but denied murder, claiming Ms Ligman died following a drug-fuelled sex session. He told the court the couple had been taking amphetamines and having sex while at home between 24 and 28 April – then claiming to have found her dead on the sofa at home the following day when he returned from work.
Ms Ligman’s Polish identity card and bank card was found burned and cut up by a member of the public along the route that Kocik had made when he disposed of her body in the canal.
Her friends and family in Poland grew increasingly worried and begged Kocik to go to the police. Kocik initially told Ms Ligman’s relatives he thought she had gone to Poland and he had not tried to find her in order to give her some space.
The discovery of Ms Ligman’s body, lying in a tight foetal position wrapped in bin bags and curtains, was “all over the news”, the court heard. Only then did Kocik report her missing.
The suitcase had been seen floating in the canal in Little Venice, near Maida Vale, by the occupants of a houseboat who spotted her dyed red hair streaming from the suitcase after it collided with the hull.
The post-mortem examination revealed Ms Ligman, a delicatessen worker who was 5' 2" tall, had extensive bruising over her body and multiple fractures to her ribs.
Prosecutor Timothy Cray told the Old Bailey: “If the initial attack had not killed her outright, the fact that she was then zipped into a suitcase and left inside would also have proved fatal because of the effects of being left in such a constricted space.
“He attacked Marta, put her in a suitcase and when she was dead or dying, he put that suitcase in the Grand Union Canal. These are the acts of a man intent on covering up a dreadful crime.”
The couple had met online in a dating chatroom while Ms Ligman was living with her family in Poland. She travelled to London to live with Kocik in 2012 but their relationship had soured by the time of her death earlier this year.
The Old Bailey heard that Kocik was an “obsessively jealous, controlling” boyfriend who was violent towards Ms Ligman.
When asked why he did not contact emergency services if he thought Ms Ligman had died of an overdose, Kocik, speaking through an interpreter, said: “I only remember I thought I would be in trouble because we had been taking drugs and I would be blamed for that.”
The jury rejected his explanation and convicted him after deliberating for just over a day. Kocik showed no emotion as the jury delivered its verdict.
He was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on 27 November.