Sister pleased as man who turned woman into human fireball gets life

May 3 2008 by Chloe Griffiths, Liverpool Daily Post

Monica Szmecht was murdered by Anthony Clarke _220

THE sister of a Polish waitress turned into a human fireball by her jealous ex-boyfriend branded him a “beast” after seeing him jailed for life.

Kalina Adamska spoke out after seeing former soldier Anthony Clarke jailed for a minimum of 25 years for the brutal murder of her sister, Monika Szmecht.

Cocaine-user Clarke first kidnapped the pretty 21-year-old to a lonely lane in Rainhill and then stabbed her six times to the stomach, set her alight, and then stabbed her again.

She managed to stumble to a cottage where she identified her attacker to paramedics who came to her aid.

Miss Szmecht, originally from Poland, died in hospital later that night.

Yesterday Mrs Adamska said: “I am happy with the sentence. This man is not human, he is a beast. He deserves to stay in prison forever.”

She added: “My sister was very happy, a very friendly person, very smiley with a beautiful face. She did not deserve this to happen to her.”

Clarke, 27, of Halsey Crescent, West Derby, denied murdering Miss Szmecht, his “on-off” girlfriend for more than a year.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Teare said: “Nobody who listened to the evidence as to how Monika died will forget the horror of her death.”

He told Clarke: “It is difficult to imagine the enormity of the physical and mental suffering you inflicted open her.”

The prosecution told how days before her death, Clarke had attacked Miss Szmecht in a jealous rage and she had attempted to extort £1,000 out of him in exchange for not going to police.

But when she met him to collect the money, he imprisoned her in a van.

He was aided by his best friend, Philip Savin, 29, of Chester Avenue, Bootle, and later his uncle, David Clarke, 46, of Walton Village, Walton.

Both men were originally charged with murder, but admitted lesser charges and took the stand against Clarke.

Former soldier Savin was jailed for six years for kidnapping, criminal damage and assisting an offender, as well as a previous theft from 2005.

While David Clarke was jailed for two years for assisting an offender after cleaning the van and failing to tell police Clarke had confessed.