The woman was reportedly going through a “severe depressive episode” after being made redundant
A South London woman reportedly scrolled through text messages her City banker boyfriend had sent to a female co-worker after stabbing him to death while in the grip of a “severe depressive episode”, a court has heard.
Joanna Cierpka, 51, an unemployed business executive, had suffered a significant decline in her mental health after being made redundant during the coronavirus crisis in 2020, the Old Bailey heard.
She has admitted to killing her partner Henrik Slotsaa, 52, at their South London flat in March after he told her he had met someone else at Citibank where he worked and did not love her anymore.
On Thursday (September 24), psychiatrist Dr Penny Brown told jurors that the defendant had a depressive disorder and had been suffering from a “severe depressive episode”.
Dr Brown relayed to jurors interviews she had with Cierpka in the wake of the killing. Cierpka told her she had no memory of the killing itself but that Mr Slotsaa had been “dismissive or offensive” just before, the court heard.
Prior to that, Cierpka said he would get “frustrated and angry and call her useless”, and had threatened to “kick her out” and make her go back to her native Poland.
After learning on her birthday in January that he was interested in another woman, she mainly “had her head in the sand about it” and had “an ostrich strategy”, jurors heard.
Dr Brown said: “She told me she occasionally checked his phone including him sending her (the female co-worker) pictures she had taken of him while they were on holiday together.”
On the the killing, Dr Brown said: “She said she does not remember how it happened. She doesn’t remember being in the bedroom. The next thing she remembers is sitting in the living room with the knife on the coffee table. She could remember there was blood on the knife and an awareness Henrik was in the bedroom and must be dead. She said she had wanted to kill herself and didn’t know why he died.”
Dr Brown continued: “She remembered going in the bedroom. There was blood but (she) didn’t know where he was injured. She told me she had his phone and was going through it reading messages between him and the lady and the most painful ones were photos she had taken of him when they had special moments together. She said she read them after he died but had checked his phone prior to him dying.”
The defendant went on to text Mr Slotsaa’s boss that he was “sick” and messaged his female co-worker confirming their plans to meet to “buy time”.
In the days before his body was discovered by police on March 15, Cierpka said she was “in a state between sleep and not sleep”. She emailed friends and family to “push her over the edge to carry out the act to kill herself”, Dr Brown said.
The witness opined that it was “not uncommon” for people not to remember violent events such as homicides. Cierpka has pleaded not guilty to murder, but she says she is guilty of manslaughter by reason of her diminished responsibility.
The Old Bailey trial was adjourned until Tuesday.
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