TWO Croydon men and their brother, who beat up a man they mistakenly blamed for stealing a mobile phone, have been found guilty of manslaughter.
Viktoras Tarasov, 39, of Aurelia Road, Croydon, Valodia Tarasov, 35, of Abingdon Road, Norbury and their brother Jurius Tarasov, 33, of Brixton, had denied killing 37-year-old Pawel Pacholak.
Mr Pacholak died after jumping from a window while fleeing the violent assault by the brothers on Sunday, January 13 last year in Streatham.
He had been staying at a friend's address in Streatham High Street with several others including Viktoras, where everyone had been drinking throughout Saturday, January 12.
The two other brothers, Jurius and Valodia, arrived at around 10pm.
The three drunk brothers were heard arguing from the lounge that Mr Pacholak had stolen a missing mobile phone belonging to Jurius before the argument spilled out into the street.
Between midnight and 1.30am there was another disturbance at the property followed by a loud noise to the back of the building.
A neighbour said they saw an apparently drunk man stagger about on the patio before collapsing and Mr Pacholak was subsequently found dead slumped against a wall in nearby Albert Carr Gardens at 11.50am.
He had taken refuge in an upstairs bathroom and tried to escape by jumping out of a window, landing face-down, breaking his neck and collapsing a short time later
The first police officers to arrive saw Viktoras Tarasov throwing red-stained water out of the back door which he claimed was bloody from meat.
But there was extensive blood staining inside the address which various people had attempted to clean.
Detectives concluded the victim had been beaten by the Tarasovs after blaming him for the missing phone –but it emerged it had been lost earlier in the evening somewhere else.
A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as multiple injuries with significant head, facial and upper body injuries, including 11 broken ribs.
The Tarasovs were arrested a few days later and charged with manslaughter and other offences.
Valodia and Viktoras were also found guilty at The Old Bailey today (July 24) of perverting the course of justice for trying to clean the victim's bloody from the property.
Viktoras was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice for attempting to give his brothers false alibis in police interview.
The brothers will be sentenced at the Old Bailey tomorrow (Friday).
Investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Chalmers, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: "This has been a complex case with the prosecution needing to prove the defendants responsible for Pawel's death despite them not actually having pushed him from the window.
"The jury agreed that the victim was so scared of being further assaulted he felt he had no option but to escape via a window. He would never have taken such drastic action had he not been in great fear for his safety."
