JACHIMOWICZ:SON CLEARED OF SHALLOW GRAVE KILLING OF HIS DAD

A pensioner who told a court he was honouring his dad’s wishes when he buried his body in the back garden was cleared of manslaughter today (mon).

The tarpaulin-wrapped body of Hierinom Jachimowicz, 87, was discovered by police last November in a shallow grave behind the greenhouse at the family home.

Michael Jachimowicz, 69, was the sole heir to his father’s estate and, it was claimed, he had ‘much to gain’ from his death.

The defendant insisted his father Hierinom, known as Henry, had died from natural causes and by burying him in the back garden, he was merely following his final instructions.

He was cleared of manslaughter by a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court today (mon).

Jachimowicz was the sole carer for his elderly father, who was last seen alive on March 11, 2005.

He never registered his father as deceased, and allegedly told neighbours and social workers that Henry had gone to live in Lithuania, Poland or Bristol after his disappearance.

The pensioner had purchased a grave plot at Gunnersbury Cemetery, west London, where his mother was buried, and added his father’s details to headstone.

Police acting on a tip off dug up the elderly man’s body from the garden in Furzehill Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, on November 4 last year.

His body was accompanied by a handwritten note from Michael, stuffed into a milk bottle, claiming his father had died of natural causes and he had honoured his ‘dying wish’ by burying him in the garden.

It said: ‘Henry’s dying wish was to be buried with all the things that made his life worth living, viz: his beloved wire fox hair terrier (3 buried in this garden), his wonderful bees (six hives here) and his glorios [sic] garden of 20 fruit trees.

‘He held me to promise that come his final day on the good earth, that I would ensure his request be met.

‘To that effoc [sic] I have honoured his wish.

‘Found dead in bed on Sunday morning 13/3/05.’

The message ended: ‘All my love and lifelong respect. God be with you!

‘Signed, Michael, his only son.

‘P.S.. I write this with tears in my eyes.’

Ann Evans, prosecuting, told the jury Jachimowicz was his father’s sole heir and had ‘much to gain’ from his death.

‘The only sensible inference to be drawn from a clandestine burial in the back garden, carelessly covered with tarpaulin, is by reason of unlawful harm that Michael caused to his father killing him in the process,’ she said.

‘Over the months and years that were to follow the death, Michael Jachimowicz would lie to everyone.

‘He lied to the neighbours, he lied to his family and he lied to the authorities about where his father was.

‘You may think this bought him time and distance from his father’s death – no doubt in the hope that his father’s remains would never be discovered during his own lifetime.’

Giving evidence, Jachimowicz maintained he had concealed his father’s natural death on March 15, 2005, so that he could honour a pledge to bury him at home.

Asked why he had not called a doctor, he said: ‘Father would have been taken to the local hospital, then from the hospital he would be put in a mortuary and then to the undertakers and then to the cemetery.

‘Now I had a problem facing me. I thought “What am I going to do? Am I going to allow that to happen or am I going to honour the pledge I gave him to bury him in the garden”?’

He told jurors: ‘I slowly realised I had made a promise to him and that promise was that I would bury him in the garden.’

Jachimowicz told the court he spent the entire day digging the grave and had been to a nearby DIY store to buy ‘the most expensive tarpaulin’ to wrap him in.

‘I lined the grave with tarpaulin,’ he said.

‘As it was dark I went into the house and opened the door to where my father was and picked him up and I carried him to where I had made the grave.

‘Then, as gently as I could, I placed him in the tarpaulin.’

The defendant said he then placed the handwritten note in on his father’s body and filled the hole with three bags of peat.

He said he was concerned that his father should be left with a ‘last worldly tribute[‘ to ensure that if he were discovered in the future people would know who he was.

Jachimowicz, of (164) Furzehill Road, Borehamwood, Herts, was cleared of manslaughter between March 11, 2005 and November 10, 2010.
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