Man found guilty of murdering his wife in Sligo in 2018

A man who strangled his wife in their home after she sought to leave him and build her own life has been found guilty of murder.

A jury of seven woman and four men took two days to deliver a verdict in the case of Rafal Karaczyn, who had claimed that Natalia Karaczyn provoked him by slapping him and refusing to tell him where she had been. The verdict was not unanimous, but was agreed on by 10 of the 11 jurors.

Karaczyn (35), of Crozon Park, Sligo had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to the murder for of his wife on April 29th, 2018.

The Central Criminal Court trial heard that Natalia wanted to split from her husband and wanted him out of their home. When she arrived home in the early hours on a Sunday morning, Karaczyn came into her bedroom and demanded to know where she had been.

He eventually told gardaí that she pushed him out of the room and when he returned and demanded to know, she slapped him.

“I really don’t know what happened. I started to strangle her and after a while she started to slide down,” he later told gardaí.

He claimed in his defence that Natalia had provoked him to such an extent that he lost all self control and argued that he should therefore be found guilty of manslaughter and not murder.

Karaczyn, who sent a text to his wife’s phone asking where she was after he murdered her, dumped her body in woodlands and later said she had been killed by Travellers.

Second trial

It was his second time to stand trial accused of the murder, with his first trial being halted in March last year due to Covid-related issues when it was close to conclusion.

Following the verdict, Natalia’s sister described the deceased as a “loving mum, sister and daughter who had plans and dreams that will never come true”.

“Soon the trial will be over and everyone will forget and move on but not us. We will never forget or move on, ” Magdalena McMorrow said.

Ms McMorrow said her sister’s death impacted every member of the family and caused her father’s death as he couldn’t cope with the “hate and pain”.

The youngest of Natalia’s three children does not know who his mother is, she said, adding: “It breaks my heart when they are happy because I want my sister to be there to see it, and it breaks my heart when they are sad because I want Natalia to be there to comfort them.”

Ms Justice Eileen Creedon sentenced Karaczyn to the mandatory term of life imprisonment.

Outside court Supt Mandy Gaynor said it had been a “long, sad journey” for Natalia’s family. They had put their trust in An Garda Síochána to investigate the “callous act”, she said, and the investigation had resulted in a murder conviction. She thanked the community in Sligo, in particular the members of the Eastern European community, for their help.

The trial heard Ms McMorrow reported Natalia missing after speaking to Karaczyn and went looking around Sligo in an attempt to trace her movements.

Staff from a nearby pub allowed her to look at CCTV footage which showed Natalia some 50m from her home at about 6am. She was with a man she had spent the night with having met him at another pub, who left her to walk the last 50m home alone. Gardaí harvested CCTV from a neighbour’s house which showed Natalia entering her home.

Suspicions

Their suspicions had already been aroused by how nervous Karaczyn appeared to be and the fact that gardaí found Natalia’s handbag with her purse inside containing her ID and bank card.

They decided to arrest Karaczyn but he maintained that Natalia had not come home and he did not know where she was. He was released on Monday morning at about 5am and went to his friend Piotr Krawacki’s house. When Magdalena arrived, Karaczyn broke down and told them that Natalia was dead.

He said he found her dead body in her room on Sunday morning and, panicking, decided to put her in the boot of the car and dump her in the woods.

He told Ms McMorrow, and would later tell gardaí, that a Traveller came to his house some weeks previously and put a gun to his head and told him Natalia had “messed with the wrong woman”.

He said the same man had approached him the day before Natalia’s death and threatened to kill his children if he did not leave a window open so they could get inside the house. Karaczyn claimed he woke up that Sunday morning to find his wife’s dead body in her room.

In a series of interviews, gardaí repeatedly asked Karaczyn to tell the truth but he maintained the lie until, following his seventh interview, he spoke privately to Ms McMorrow in an interview room in Ballymote Garda station.

Having come clean to his sister-in-law, he told gardaí that he had killed her after they had a row over where she had been all night.

Chief State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan told the jury that the cause of deathwas asphyxiation due to the application of pressure to the external neck.

The garda investigation revealed that the relationship between the couple had been strained for at least a year. A series of text exchanges between them showed Natalia repeatedly telling him that she wanted nothing to do with him and demanding that he leave their home.