Father, 40, is jailed for 34 years for ‘evil’ murder of his wife and daughter, 18

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A ‘psycho’ supermarket worker has been jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 34 years, for the ‘evil’ murders of his wife and teenage daughter in a jealous rage in front of the couple’s other two young children. 

Cold-blooded Marcin Zdun will have to serve a minimum of 34 years, for the ‘evil’ murders of his wife and teenage daughter, Winchester Crown Court was told. 

The 40-year-old ‘butchered’ Aneta and Nikoleta Zdun in a jealous rage by slitting their throats and stabbing them ‘in the most brutal fashion’ at their home in Salisbury, Wiltshire. 

Zdun had been kicked out of the family home after he grew to hate how close Aneta, also 40, and 18-year-old Nikoleta were and believed they ‘pushed him out of the marriage’.  

Passing sentence, judge Mr Justice Chamberlain said the defendant had shouted the Polish word for ‘whore’ as he stabbed the two women and slit their throats in the ‘sustained and brutal attack’.

Describing the incident as a ‘scene of unimaginable horror’, he said the couple’s other children had been screaming loudly as they saw the attack, ‘pleading’ with him to stop, before Nikoleta managed to get them both to safety with a neighbour.

One of the children was heard to shout: ‘Daddy, I don’t want Mummy to die.’

The judge told Zdun: ‘Your method could not have been calculated to be more cruel to them.

‘It’s hardly surprising they have found it difficult to come to terms with the loss of their mother and sister.

‘They have understandably suffered nightmares. Because of what you did, they have also lost their father.’

He added: ‘The main reason for your anger was your possessiveness and your feeling your control over your family was slipping away from you.

‘These feelings intensified after Aneta threw you out of the family home in April this year. You were jealous they were happy and you were not.’

Zdun, a Polish national, believed both his wife and daughter were having an affair with a man at the Tesco supermarket where he worked, his two-week long trial heard.  

And he had become increasingly angry and violent towards his wife, a care worker, because she was not cleaning the house or making meals for the family as he demanded her to.

The court was also told he would confiscate her car keys and even disconnect the battery so the care worker could not drive the vehicle, even to visit her clients. 

Zdun had also previously fallen out with his 18-year-old daughter after she disobeyed him on getting piercings and tattoos having turned to her mother for permission instead.

The prosecution said the family had become ‘terrified’ of him in the days leading up to the fatal attack and his wife had sent a message to her mother saying: ‘I don’t want him to kill us, he’s a psycho.’

Giving evidence to the court, Zdun denied ‘bullying’ his wife but admitted that he put a lock on their bedroom door after she moved to sleep into another room so that she would not come in to ‘nag’ him.    

On June 1 – a special day called ‘Children’s Day’ in the Polish calendar – Zdun walked from his lodging to the family home under the pretence of delivering presents.

But the Tesco night filler picked up an Edel Hoff kitchen knife and cut the pair’s throats within minutes of arriving there, leaving blood stains ‘everywhere’.

In graphic detail, horrified neighbours told how Zdun repeatedly plunged the blade into the defenceless pair in their garden, with Aneta desperately trying to save Nikoleta by blocking off Zdun.

Painter and decorator David Powell rushed to the scene when he heard screams from Zdun’s young children

Mr Powell told the court: ‘There was no humanity in his face whatsoever, just anger – pure anger. I don’t know how you can do that to another human being.

‘His sole purpose was to kill them… he just went mental.’

Nicholas Haggan, prosecuting, said the injuries were ‘catastrophic’ and unsurvivable. 

One of Zdun’s younger children, who cannot be named, told the court: ‘My sister is injured, daddy had a big knife and he kept poking her with it.

‘… Because of the accident, but it wasn’t really an accident, he did it on purpose. There was so much blood in the bathroom.

‘My dad called my sister and my mum into the bathroom and then started poking their necks… Dad pushed them into a bathtub and they were bleeding.

‘Daddy kept poking mummy with a big, very sharp knife. He done it lots of times to mummy and to Nikoleta. There was a lot of blood in the bath and on the boxes outside.

‘I opened the bathroom door and dad put the knife to me, I thought he was going to poke me with it but he didn’t.’

Zdun accepted he killed the pair but denied murdering them, arguing he couldn’t remember the attack and was mentally incapacitated. 

Nicholas Haggan QC, prosecuting, said there was evidence that the murders ‘involved a substantial degree of premeditation and planning’, although the judge ruled that this could not be proven.

Mrs Zdun’s mother, Bozena Stanczyk, said in a statement read to the court: ‘June 1 was the day evil won, which caused the cruel death of the person closest to my heart.

‘I will never again get to talk to my wonderful, clever, smiling, warm and good daughter.’

She continued: ‘Nikoleta was the apple of my eye, I will never again see or hug my granddaughter.’

Mrs Zdun’s father, Andrzej Stanczyk, said of his daughter in a statement: ‘She was clever, tough and capable, blood of my blood, she was my reflection, I was so proud of her.’

He continued of his granddaughter: ‘Nikoleta, to me, was an exceptional person, she had her whole life ahead of her.’ 

Nikoleta’s friends described how she ‘looked like a model’ because she was ‘very pretty’ and said ‘she had a massive heart’.

Mrs Zdun was a physiotherapist as well as a carer at a home care service in Salisbury and treated vulnerable people. Her employer Wessex Care previously paid tribute to her as a ‘beloved colleague and friend’.

The company added Mrs Zdun was a ‘well-loved and well-known’ member of staff who worked in the community team.

‘Those of you who knew Aneta personally and professionally will know what a warm, kind and caring individual she was,’ a spokeswoman said.  

Zdun married his wife 20 years ago and in the short time he spent living separately to his family Aneta said she ‘finally felt happy’.