Serial rapist died of natural causes in prison cell.
A KILLER and serial rapist dubbed The Beast was granted one last vestige of dignity by a North East coroner yesterday. Andrzej Kunowski, 52, died of heart failure in the early hours of Wednesday, September 23, last year in his cell at Frankland prison, Durham, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of a 12-year-old girl.County Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle ordered that the address on his birth certificate be logged as 55 Finchale Avenue, Durham -the postal address for Frankland.
"On a death certificate I believe it is better for a prisoner's family to have the postal address as the location of death rather than HM Prison Frankland," he said.
Kunowski was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2004 for killing Katerina Koneva, 12, at her home in Hammersmith, west London, in 1997.
It emerged that when he strangled Katerina in May 1997, Kunowski was on the run after raping a 10-year-old girl in Poland.
Katerina was alone in their flat when Kunowski appeared, apparently intending to sexually assault her. When her father surprised the serial rapist, he strangled her and escaped through a window. Police say he has also been linked to numerous investigations, including the disappearances of two young women.
He had previously served 10 years in jail in his native Poland where he became known as "the Beast" for 27 serious sex attacks on girls and women from the age of 17.
At a brief hearing at Chester-le-Street magistrates court yesterday Mr Tweddle advised a jury there could be no other verdict into Konowski's death than that he died of natural causes.
Home Office pathologist Dr Nigel Cooper told the inquest that a post mortem revealed that Konowski, who had a history of heart problems, had been found dead in his cell.
Dr Cooper said a blood clot appeared to have caused his death, hastened by the fact that the prisoner was diabetic.
Kunowski was once deemed one of Britain's most dangerous prisoners.
He was previously questioned over the disappearances of Elizabeth Chau, 19, in 1999 and Lola Shenkoya, 27, in 2000, both in West London. He was the main suspect in each case.
Verdict: Death by Natural Causes.
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| Publication: | The Journal (Newcastle, England) |
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| Date: | Sep 3, 2010 |
| Words: | 366 |
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