The Crown claims that the 31-year-old was suffering only ‘mild depression’ and carried out the attacks because he feared that his marriage was collapsing after his 30-year-old wife, Izabela, had an affair.
But in his second day of giving evidence for the defence, consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Samrat Sengupta, who assessed Rzeszowski at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, said that he concluded that the Polish national was suffering ‘a severe depressive disorder with psychotic symptoms which amounted to an abnormality of the mind’.
Rzeszowski is accused of murdering his wife, children Kacper (2) and Kinga (5), 56-year-old father-in-law Marek Garstka, family friend Marta de la Haye (34) and her five-year-old daughter Julia.
He denies the charge but has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming that he was suffering a severe mental impairment at the time.
