Two men found guilty of knife murder after Christmas Day house party in Leeds due to be sentenced today

A Leeds Crown Court Jury convicted Tomasz Dybicz and Pawel Stragowski of murdering Maksym Polomka after a three week trial.

The jury spent just over nine hours considering their verdicts before delivering the guilty verdicts.

Dybicz, of of Robb Street, Beeston and Stragowski, of Coleshill Way, Bradford, were also each convicted of possessing an offensive weapon.

Mr Polomka died from a stab wound to his jugular vein in the early hours of Boxing Day morning.

He had also suffered slash wounds to his scalp, shoulder, thigh and bite injuries to his arms.

Violence erupted at the house party in Beeston after Mr Polomka argued with his girlfriend.

Jurors were told Dybicz, 29, and Stragowski, 28, armed themselves with knives before attacking Mr Polomka outside the property on Robb Street.

Mr Polomka and a group of others, including the defendants, had been to a Christmas Day party at a house on Wooler Avenue, Beeston.

Some then left that party to go to Dybicz's house nearby on Robb Street to continue the festive celebrations.

Mr Plomoka's girlfriend Natalia Putilo told the jury how she sprinted barefoot into the street to help Mr Polomka as she saw the defendants attacking him as he was on the ground.

She told the court she had seen both men armed with knives moments earlier.

Speaking through a Russian interpreter during the trial, Ms Putilo described the moment she realised her partner was severely injured.

She said: “He was looking at me with the eyes of a child. At some point he tried to get up. I will never forget his eyes, the way he looked at me.”