A gang of four thugs who beat a law professor so badly he needed facial reconstruction surgery all had previous criminal convictions in Poland, a court has heard.
Kingston Crown Court were told that the gang’s ring leader, Dawid Tychon, was even on the run from a Polish prison where and had already served three sentences for a gun attack, theft, burglary and drugs offences.
He escaped the jail where he was serving a long sentence in 2012 and due to the lack of border controls between countries in the EU ‘Schengen Zone’, was able to make it into the UK.
His three accomplices all have a string of convictions in their native Poland for similar violent crimes.
The news will increase the pressure on politicians to insist the UK has the power to keep out dangerous criminals.
Currently, EU law forbids any country from banning another EU citizen from entry because of criminal convictions alone, as free movement is their ‘right’. But even His Holiness The Pope warned MEPs and EU leaders that rights come with responsibilities during a landmark speech in Strasbourg this week.
The debate on immigration controls was sparked earlier in the autumn after it was revealed that the man suspected of murdering school girl Alice Gross was a convicted murderer from Latvia.
The gang, who were all bodybuilders and trained in martial arts, burst into the home of Professor Paul Kohler on August 11th as he and his family were seated round a table playing a board game.
The Daily Mail reports the men pinned him to the floor and threatened to smash a heavy wooden cabinet over his head while screaming: ‘Where’s the money?’ They also tried to tied his wife Samantha to a chair with duct tape.
The terrified couple were saved when one of their daughters, Eloise, barricaded herself in her room and dialled 999.
The police arrived quickly and arrested two of the men, Mariusz Tomaszewski, 32, and Pawel Honc, 23, who were both covered in blood of their victims.
Prof Kohler was beaten up so badly he was unrecognisable.
The other two criminals were arrested after the event and all four have pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and two to Grievous Bodily Harm with intent. The ringleader tried to pass off his involvement as the getaway driver despite masterminding the violent criminal attack.
When police caught him, driving a suspected stolen car, he was surrounded with an array of illegal drugs as well as a gas powered flame thrower and bizarrely, wearing an England football shirt.
One of the other men, Tomaszewski, came to Britain in 2013 after serving an eight year jail sentence. His police files record the football hooligan as a ‘very dangerous criminal’. Police suspect he was a member of a criminal gang associated with his local football team and is responsible for badly beating other men during street brawls. He lost his job at Heathrow Airport after oversleeping on the first day and instead occupies himself drinking and smoking cannabis.
Barristers for all four men appearing at Kingston Crown Court said they wanted to express their “sincere regret and apologies.” They were all remanded in custody and told to expect substantial prison sentences.
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