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A 51-year-old woman stabbed her Danish banker boyfriend to death in their south London apartment and left his body decomposing in their bedroom for up to nine days following an acrimonious dispute over his workplace infidelity, the Old Bailey heard on Wednesday. Joanna Cierpka, a former tobacco marketing executive, is standing trial accused of murdering 52-year-old Henrik Slotsaa, a senior banker at Citibank's Canary Wharf office, at their shared residence in Newington Causeway, Elephant and Castle. The fatal altercation erupted after Mr Slotsaa allegedly informed the defendant on her birthday that he had met someone else at work and intended to offer her £70,000 to move out of the flat they shared. While Cierpka has formally entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, the Crown has rejected this plea, arguing that her actions constitute deliberate murder.
An Escalating Domestic Breakdown
The fatal incident followed months of worsening domestic friction triggered by professional instability and romantic estrangement, Daily Dazzling Dawn understands. Prosecutor Danny Robinson KC informed jurors that Cierpka, originally from Gdynia, Poland, had been in a bad way since being made redundant from her marketing job at British American Tobacco, where friends noted she had once been the life and soul of the party. Concurrently, Mr Slotsaa formed a friendship with a female colleague, Aimee O'Shaughnessy, who joined Citibank in September. The pair met at a corporate gathering on 12 November, exchanged telephone numbers, and met for lunch the following month after Miss O'Shaughnessy disclosed she was navigating a divorce.
Throughout January, Mr Slotsaa and Miss O'Shaughnessy met for lunch on several occasions, during which he confided that circumstances at home were deteriorating and admitted he had developed feelings for her. Miss O'Shaughnessy indicated she did not wish to complicate matters by pursuing a relationship, a position Mr Slotsaa accepted. Nevertheless, their lunchtime meetings persisted into March, when Mr Slotsaa revealed he was contemplating offering Cierpka £70,000 to leave their flat. Cierpka later told an examining psychiatrist that in December Mr Slotsaa had declared he no longer loved her, followed by the revelation on her birthday that he had fallen for a colleague. The confrontation culminated in a fatal physical assault during which Mr Slotsaa sustained fourteen distinct sharp force injuries, including slash and stab wounds to his face, neck, arms, and legs. Pathologists also recorded unusual lacerations to the backs of both knees, which prosecutors suggested indicated an attempt at dismemberment.
Concealment, Digital Deception, and Police Entry
Following the fatal attack during the second weekend of March, Cierpka allegedly left Mr Slotsaa’s body in their bedroom while his mobile handset continued to generate messages to divert suspicion. Daily Dazzling Dawn learned that exchanges between Mr Slotsaa's phone and Miss O'Shaughnessy continued until Wednesday, 11 March, although prosecutors noted messages transmitted after Sunday, 8 March were almost certainly sent by Cierpka after his death. Rising concern emerged on Monday, 9 March, when his line manager, Jane Styles, received a WhatsApp notification from his device stating he was absent with a high temperature. Miss Styles instructed him to set his automated out-of-office message, but it remained disabled, and repeated attempts by corporate peers to reach him throughout the week failed.
The killing was uncovered on 15 March when Metropolitan Police officers carried out an emergency welfare check after Cierpka distributed an email to family and acquaintances stating she intended to take her own life. Officers forced entry into the Newington Causeway property, finding it littered with empty wine bottles on the coffee table and kitchen counters. Police confronted Cierpka, who was attempting to cut her own throat with an eight-inch kitchen knife. After being disarmed and restrained, she remarked to officers that her partner had subjected her to severe emotional degradation, stating he had called her useless and told her to end her life. After receiving medical attention for a deep wound to her elbow, she admitted to hospital staff that she had killed her partner. Police discovered Mr Slotsaa's partially decomposed body in his underwear, kneeling beside the bed amidst dried, pooled blood.
Diminished Responsibility Against Intentional Homicide
The core issue before the Central Criminal Court centres upon Cierpka's mental state at the time of the stabbing and whether her responsibility was substantially impaired. Cierpka, appearing via videolink from HMP Bronzefield in a black prison-issue jacket, maintains her denial of murder while standing by her guilty plea to manslaughter.
Prosecutor Danny Robinson KC told the jury that while there is no dispute that Cierpka killed Mr Slotsaa with a kitchen knife, the Crown contends that the scale of the violence, the nature of the injuries, and the subsequent concealment demonstrate murder rather than manslaughter. The prosecution argued that her distress over the breakdown of the relationship and her partner's interest in a work colleague does not diminish her legal responsibility for the killing. The trial continues at the Old Bailey.
