Reporter competition twenty-one entrant

Kamil Lacki: three days of violence, a burning car and an unduly lenient sentence

The Polish national and an accomplice invited a man for Christmas, imprisoned and beat him, transported him bound and gagged in a boot and set his car alight. The Court of Appeal said the original five active years were nowhere near enough and raised Lacki’s sentence to nine.

Published 26 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger

3 daysFalse imprisonment and violence

5 offencesGuilty pleas

5 active yearsOriginal sentence

9 yearsFinal appeal sentence

The appellate judges struggled to find ordinary language for this case. One described it as akin to attempted murder. Another called it unbelievable and compared its character to atrocities associated with extremists. Yet the offences before the court were precisely defined guilty pleas: arson, false imprisonment, assault, criminal damage and cannabis cultivation.

A Christmas invitation became imprisonment

On Christmas Eve 2015, Daniel Wanzuk accepted an invitation to the Borris, Co Carlow home shared by Kamil Lacki and Krzysztof Niepogoda. The court found that the two Polish nationals falsely imprisoned, assaulted and threatened him over the following days because they wrongly believed he was responsible for missing cannabis plants.

Wanzuk was punched repeatedly and struck with a baseball bat and a sheathed samurai-style sword. The Court of Appeal judgment associated those implements with Lacki.

Bound in a boot beside a burning car

The men bound and gagged Wanzuk and carried him in the boot of a car to a wooded location. They transferred him into the boot of his own vehicle and set it alight. He managed to bite through duct tape and escape the boot. The men tried to force him back inside but the heat prevented them.

They kicked him on the ground, transported him again and held him by his feet over a bridge while threatening to kill him. Back at the house, an electric cable was applied to his legs, causing shocks and burns.

Wanzuk finally escaped through a bathroom window on St Stephen’s Day and reached a neighbour. Gardaí found 16 cannabis plants at the property. His DNA was recovered from the defendants’ car boot and from cable ties in the house.

Guilty pleas and a sentence that did not stand

Lacki pleaded guilty on the scheduled trial date to arson, false imprisonment, assault, criminal damage and unlawful cannabis cultivation. In December 2017, Carlow Circuit Criminal Court imposed six years with the final year suspended—five active years.

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed on the ground that the sentence was unduly lenient. The Court of Appeal agreed. It said the headline terms were significantly too low and that a pre-mitigation starting point could not have been below 12 years; even 14 or 15 years would probably not have attracted intervention.

On 8 October 2018, the court resentenced Lacki to nine years. Niepogoda also received nine years for the shared offences plus a consecutive year for a separate later assault, producing ten years. This page concerns Lacki and does not attribute that separate assault to him.

Case chronology

24 December 2015: Wanzuk arrives after a Christmas invitation and is falsely imprisoned.
24–26 December: Repeated assaults, threats, transport in a boot, the car fire and electrical shocks occur.
26 December 2015: Wanzuk escapes through a bathroom window and Gardaí are alerted.
25 April 2017: Lacki and Niepogoda enter guilty pleas on the listed trial date.
8 December 2017: The Circuit Court imposes six years with one suspended.
8 October 2018: The Court of Appeal finds the sentence unduly lenient and imposes nine years on Lacki.

A conditional prison-space illustration

The Irish Prison Service reported a 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space, excluding capital expenditure. Applied mechanically to the nine-year sentence, the maximum sentence-length illustration is about €891,648.

That is not an audited personal bill and does not establish that nine full calendar years were served. It ignores remission, release decisions and annual cost changes. It also excludes Garda investigation, forensic testing, prosecution, two sentencing stages, legal aid, healthcare and the extensive harm suffered by the victim.

What the record establishes

Lacki is expressly reported as a Polish national and had no relevant previous convictions. Poland is an EU member state. No reliable source located for this file establishes asylum history, unlawful residence, deportation or a post-release immigration outcome. The public record is severe without embellishment: prolonged violence, an attempt to contain a bound man beside a burning vehicle and an original sentence overturned as unduly lenient.