Hertfordshire man killed and buried father, court hears
A son killed his father at their home in Hertfordshire and then buried him in a shallow grave in the garden, a court has been told.
Michael Jachimowicz, 69, told neighbours several different stories about the whereabouts of his father Hierinom, St Albans Crown Court heard.
Police discovered the body of the 87-year-old buried near a water butt and under paving slabs last November.
Mr Jachimowicz, of Furzehill Road, Borehamwood, denies his manslaughter.
He is alleged to have killed his father between 11 March 2005 and 10 November last year.
He also denies preventing the lawful burial of a corpse by concealing the body and three offences of obtaining a money transfer by deception.
Mr Jachimowicz told various neighbours his Polish-born father, known as Henry, had returned to Poland, was living in Bristol with relatives or that he had even gone to Russia to visit friends, the jury heard.
A note found in a plastic milk bottle on his body said he had been found dead in bed on 13 March 2005 and his dying wish had been to be buried in his "glorious garden".
It ended: "All my love and lifelong respect. God be with you. Signed Michael (his only son). PS I write this with tears in my eyes."
But Ann Evans, prosecuting, said Mr Jachimowicz had not been carrying out his father's dying wish.
She said: "The Crown invites you to conclude the opposite; that this defendant caused the death of his father and dumped his body in the back garden."
Cuts to arms
The court heard one neighbour, Joan Potter, had called at the pair's home shortly before Mr Jachimowicz senior's death and remembered his son pushing him.
In March 2005 a district nurse called and found Mr Jachimowicz senior with cuts to his arms and hands.
Police arrived at the defendant's home to speak to him on 4 November last year after his father had not been seen since 2005.
The property was searched and the makeshift grave was his found on 12 November.
Mrs Evans said a forensic archaeologist concluded that both a dog's grave found in the garden and Mr Jachimowicz's grave had been the work of the same person.
The court heard that in 1999 Mr Jachimowicz senior's wife Jadwiga had died and their son had purchased a double plot at the Gunnersbury Cemetery.
Mrs Evans said: "If he had died a natural death, there was no reason at all not to bury him there."
She said Mr Jachimowicz was the sole surviving heir to his father's estate and had a great deal to gain financially from his lawful death.
She said Mr Jachimowicz had committed three offences of obtaining a money transfer by deception by continuing to receive an attendance allowance for his father.
He had received a total of £4,320 and had also claimed pension credit on behalf of his father, amounting to more than £1,300, she said.
A further charge concerned a pension payment of nearly £7,000.
The case continues.