Catherine Wells-Burr: Trio Guilty Of Murder!

Catherine Wells-Burr

A Polish factory worker has been found guilty of murdering his British girlfriend after hatching a plot with his jealous secret lover and her uncle.

Rafal Nowak, 31, killed his girlfriend Catherine Wells-Burr as she slept at the couple's new home in Chard, Somerset.

His lover Anna Lagwinowicz, 32, and her uncle, Tadevsz Dmytryszyn, 38, then helped him dump Miss Wells-Burr's body in her car at a nearby roadside and set fire to it.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court convicted Nowak, Lagwinowicz and Dmytryszyn of murdering the 23-year-old business analyst in September 2012. They will be sentenced on Monday.

The Bath Spa University graduate died as a result of a plot driven by revenge, jealousy and greed.

With her death the three defendants would secure a £123,000 life insurance payout and a half share of a £137,000 two-bedroom house.

The murder was the result of months of secret meetings and phone calls between Nowak and Lagwinowicz, with Miss Wells-Burr oblivious to what was going on.

Nowak smothered a sleeping Miss Wells-Burr with a pillow, before Lagwinowicz and Dmytryszyn removed her body from the house and drove it in her red Ford Focus to a beauty spot at Ashill.

They placed the victim in the driver's seat and set fire to the car at 6am - 20 minutes after Nowak had clocked into work - providing him with what he thought was the perfect alibi.

The defendants had spent months leaving a false trail for detectives, creating fake profiles for Miss Wells-Burr on adult websites and sending texts to her phone from a supposed mystery lover.

Nowak, of Willow Way, Chard, Lagwinowicz, of South Street, Taunton, and Dmytryszyn, of Holway Avenue, Taunton, denied having any part in the death during their trial.

But the jury, who sat through seven weeks of harrowing evidence, found the trio guilty of murder having seen through their web of lies.

Members of Miss Wells-Burr's family wept in court as the verdicts were announced. The three murderers showed no emotion.

During the trial, a heavily-tattooed Nowak wept in the witness box as he insisted he played no part in the death of his "true love".

But the cheating factory worker - who continued to have sex with Lagwinowicz while dating Miss Wells-Burr - failed to provide the court with any other explanation for how his girlfriend could have died.

The father-of-one, who has a wife and teenage son in his native Poland, told the jury: "Everyone blames me for something that I never done."

The court heard how Nowak showed no emotion at all when police discovered Miss Wells-Burr's body in her burnt out car on the morning of September 12.

Her mother, Jayne Wells-Burr, told the jury that he "didn't mention Catherine at all" - instead asking for a steak dinner after his initial release from police custody.

Lagwinowicz, who frequently shook her head and laughed in the dock when Nowak suggested she had been responsible for the killing, refused to take to the witness stand.

Dmytryszyn did not give evidence in his defence during the trial either.

Miss Wells-Burr's parents Jayne and Phil Wells-Burr and her sister Leanne, 21, were in court for the verdict.

Speaking afterwards, Mrs Wells-Burr said: "Leanne, Phil and I are here today because of the cruel, callous, wicked, evil and sickening act of murder against our beautiful Catherine.

"Catherine was an inspirational, amazing, caring, kind, intelligent young woman, who had her whole life ahead of her with so much potential after gaining her First Class Bachelor of Honours Degree in Business Management at Bath Spa University.

"We were all very proud of her and the person she had become.

"The hatred shown to her has truly shocked us, especially the hatred shown by Rafal Nowak, a man who was meant to have loved her."