Magdalena Luczak, who murdered son Daniel, defended by mother

The mother of Magdelena Luczak, who murdered her son Daniel Pelka, defended her daughter and claimed that social services should also be blamed for his death.

Luczak, 27, a former prostitute, and her partner Mariusz Krezolek, 34, are facing life sentences for murdering the four-year- old Coventry schoolboy who was systematically starved under the noses of his teachers and health professionals.

Luczak’s mother Jolanta Luczak told Sky News from her home in Lodz, Poland: “I don’t know who influenced her.

“I don’t know what kind of man she met, what she did, what she was thinking but please tell the judge that she was a really normal girl.

“Social services should also be held responsible because they also failed the test.”

Geoffrey Robinson, MP for Coventry North West, said Daniel was “badly let down” not just by “an evil stepfather and an indifferent and selfish mother”, but also by his school, health professionals, and social services.

Mr Robinson called for children’s services director Colin Green to resign now, rather than in September as planned, saying: “He takes with him the indelible stain of Daniel’s cruel death, which his department had failed to prevent.”

Jurors took less than four hours to unanimously convict Luczak and Krezolek following a nine-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

They battered Daniel to death after a six-month campaign of cruelty in which he was denied food, “imprisoned” in a locked box room and force-fed salt.

The pair, both originally from Poland, also forced Daniel to perform arduous punishment exercises such as squats or running, while hoodwinking teachers and doctors into believing his weight loss was due to an eating disorder.

Mr Robinson said: “How can the staff at the school attended by Daniel have failed to have recognised patterns of behaviour that should have set alarm bells ringing, not only within the school but within the corridors of power within the Council House?

“How could anyone believe it to be normal for a child to climb on the top of furniture to get to food; to scavenge around bins to access waste; and to steal food from the lunch-boxes?

“What human being, with the slightest understanding of children, would not have been concerned enough to take action to set alarm bells ringing?”

Krezolek moved to Britain in 2006 despite the fact that Polish police were hunting him after he violated the terms of a suspended sentence, it was claimed.

His sister, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Mail from the family home near Wroclaw, Poland: “My brother is still on the wanted list in Poland.

“He has brought public shame on the family.”

Daniel’s death — which occurred weeks after teaching staff saw him with bruising to his neck and black eyes — is being reviewed by Coventry’s Safeguarding Children Board.

The board’s serious case review will examine why social services and police did not become involved after staff at Coventry’s Little Heath Primary School noticed bruising on his neck and what appeared to be two black eyes.

Although the injuries to the neck were entered in a concerns book at Daniel’s school, no written record was made of the later bruising seen around his eyes.

Texts reveal mother’s role

The trial heard that Luczak played a leading role in convincing teachers and medical professionals that Daniel’s dramatic weight loss, which left him looking like a famine victim, was due to a rare genetic disorder.

Jurors heard that Daniel was left to die in his unheated “cell” for around 33 hours after suffering a fatal head injury at his Coventry home on Mar 1 last year.

Former soldier Krezolek and Luczak blamed each other for Daniel’s death during their trial but text messages between the pair proved they worked as a team to inflict the sickening abuse. They sent one text which said “he won’t see grub at all” and another stating that he had nearly been drowned.

They even opted not to summon an ambulance as Daniel lay dying with more than 20 separate injuries.

The pair also carried out Google searches — including one for “patient in a coma” — which suggested the youngster had been beaten, subjected to an attempted drowning, and poisoned with salt during his final hours.

Krezolek went online to check his bank account and the price of car tyres after Daniel, who weighed just 1 stone 9lb, was repeatedly struck around the head, causing his brain to swell.

Daniel, who had developed normally until Jan 2011, weighed just 10.7kg and was in a state of “skeletal emaciation” at the time of his death on Mar 3 last year.

Factory worker Krezolek and Luczak were both drinking heavily and taking drugs, including cannabis and amphetamine, at the time of the abuse. The couple, who never took Daniel to see his GP, had previously colluded in covering up an earlier act of cruelty in which Daniel’s left arm was broken “clean in half” by Krezolek in temper.