Three men have been locked up for preventing the lawful burial of a body following the death of Zbigniew Michniewicz in Greenford.

Arkadiusz Majchrazk, 45, of no fixed address, has today (June 9) been jailed for nine years having been found guilty of conspiring to prevent the lawful and decent burial of a dead body without lawful excuse and of grievous bodily harm.

Piotr Juszczak, 21, also of no fixed address, has been jailed for two years and nine months, also guilty of conspiring to prevent the lawful and decent burial of a dead body.

Grzegorz Roznerski, 40, of The Crescent, Slough was jailed for two years and three months after pleading guilty on March 7 to the same offence.

The first two men delivered guilty verdicts last Thursday (June 5) at Isleworth Crown Court.

Police found the body of Zbigniew Michniewicz , 36, on December 5, 2013, in a bedroom at a house in Greenford Road after a relative reported concerns of having not heard from Mr Michniewicz in a while.

The defendants chose not to alert emergency services for fear of losing access to what they had been using as a squat.

Instead, a five-foot-deep grave was prepared for the victim in the property’s back garden.

Mr Michniewicz, who had been working as a labourer but was unemployed at the time, had been assaulted three weeks earlier in his room, as shown by a post-mortem examination.

He had been struck all over his face and body repeatedly which resulted in fractures to his eye-socket, cheekbone and jaw.

When the injuries happened or the time of death could not be ascertained but the pathologist concluded that drug abuse was the cause of death.

Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh, of the Homicide & Major Crime Command, said: “The selfishness of this crime is appalling.

“These people believed alerting the authorities to the death would have caused them to vacate the property in which they were squatting. “Their actions are beyond belief. They planned to bury the body in the back garden rather than allowing Zbigniew Michniewicz a decent funeral and telling his family the truth.

“The community has been very supportive and the media have played an important part in encouraging witnesses to come forward. I would like to pay tribute to the bravery and integrity of witnesses.”

Kamila Ruszel, 18, of Marlborough Road, Southall, was found not guilty of conspiring to prevent the lawful and decent burial of a dead body.

There was a hung jury on the same charges against Damian Gradzuik, 20, of Stanhope Park Road, Greenford, and Piotr Bochajczyk, 28, of The Crescent, Slough.