TOM RAWSTORNE examines the background of air stewardess, 33, who killed her son

Nine years ago at their work Christmas party, Magda Lesicka found herself irresistibly drawn to Peter Chilvers. And who could blame her? After all, there was a lot to like.

Then in his mid-twenties, the blond trainee pilot was well-educated, dashingly good-looking and charming to boot.

Of course, much the same could have been said of Lesicka. After completing a masters’ degree in foreign literary texts, she had left her home in Poland to travel the world.

And it was while working for Ryanair as a flight attendant that her and Chilvers’ paths crossed in December 2010.

Both were based in Germany, and Lesicka had been named ‘designated driver’ at the staff Christmas do. She offered the young airman a lift back to his flat – and stayed the night. Soon afterwards, the pair moved in together and when Chilvers transferred back to England, she came too.

They duly got engaged – Lesicka proposed to her partner on February 29, 2012, a Leap Year – and in 2015, they celebrated the birth of son James.

A quick flick through their Facebook pages and a casual observer would be forgiven for assuming that the arrival of their beautiful baby capped an already perfect relationship.

Alongside photos of the couple enjoying sun-soaked holidays was a picture from the delivery suite. In it, Chilvers, smiling proudly for the camera, posed beside his wife as she cradled their newborn son. The reality could hardly have been more different.

Behind Chilvers’s clean-cut appearance and successful career lay a fearful temper and a propensity for volcanic rages and extreme jealousy. Over the years, a court heard, the ‘selfish, entitled bully’ subjected his fiancée to a relentless campaign of mental and physical torment that began almost as soon as they met.

James, pictured, was born in 2015 and was killed on August 26, 2017

He nicknamed Lesicka ‘sheep’, referring to himself as a ‘sheep owner’, belittling her in front of friends and even picking errant hairs from his forehead and forcing her to swallow them.

Several times she tried to leave him, but during one of their periodic reconciliations she accidentally fell pregnant with James.

By the summer of 2017, Lesicka was living by herself in a rented property in Manchester with their son who was coming up to two. Chilvers was involved in a long-running affair with another Ryanair stewardess, Lisa Spencer.

Fearing that Lesicka might be planning on taking James back to Poland, Chilvers began to bombard her with a series of phone calls in which he threatened that she would be arrested and would never see their son again.

Lesicka could take no more. Some time on August 26, 2017, she stabbed her son to death then used the same knife to try to kill herself. Despite the blade puncturing one of her lungs, she survived.

Lesicka with James. Lesicka phoned Greater Manchester Police and two police officers were sent to her address on August 25 where she showed them bruises to her arms and thigh

She was initially charged with her son’s murder, but prosecutors eventually accepted her guilty plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility based on the physical and psychological abuse she claimed to have been subjected to by Chilvers. In July last year, she was jailed for 15 years. At the time, nothing could be reported as Chilvers was himself facing trial over her treatment. Having been convicted of a campaign of controlling and coercive behaviour against Lesicka, the 33-year-old was himself yesterday sentenced to 18 months in prison. Lesicka gave evidence in his trial. And, while in jail, she composed a victim impact statement, parts of which were read at the sentencing hearing.

‘When I started a relationship with Peter Chilvers I had absolutely no idea he would be the controlling monster I discovered him to be,’ she wrote. ‘It is important that the public understand what Peter Chilvers’s abuse did to me.

Lesicka, also 33, inflicted a sustained attack on their son at her home in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, in August 2017 and then tried to kill herself (pictured: Lesicka with James)

‘It destroyed me. I have no idea how he achieved this and I will probably spend the rest of my life trying to work out how he turned the confident ambitious me into what I am now.’

After a difficult start in life, Polish-born Lesicka, who was adopted, had grown in to a young woman with the world at her feet.

‘She was bubbly, really clever, and strong,’ a friend told the Daily Mail. ‘Nothing would faze her.’

Chilvers, meanwhile, was raised in a middle-class household in Staffordshire, studying modern history and international relations at Essex University before a love of gliding prompted him to become a pilot. After training in Ireland and Florida, by 2010 he was working as a second officer for Ryanair out of Frankfurt, Germany.

After their Christmas encounter, the pair rented a flat together, sharing expenses equally. But even in those early days, Chilvers’s temper wasn’t far from the surface.

After Lesicka slept on a sofa when he came back drunk one night, she claimed he erupted, shouting and slamming doors until she apologised. Giving evidence at his trial, Lesicka said she ‘talked myself into believing it was a “one-off”.’ Meanwhile, behind closed doors, he was displaying apparently sadistic behaviour, twisting Lesicka’s nipples under her clothes and demeaning her.

‘He used to get a spark on his eyes when I challenged him about it,’ she told his trial. ‘He would look at me with a smile in his eyes and say sorry. He didn’t mean it.’ During one night out she accused him of pushing her into a corner and punching the wall next to her head because he thought she had spoken to another man.

Chilvers, originally from Stoke-on-Trent, had downloaded an app on to his mobile phone which enabled him to record his calls. He said Lisa Spencer (pictured) was now his current partner

Prosecutor Rob Hall claimed Chilvers ‘treated Magda Lesicka as if she was a possession to do with as he pleased’. In a doomed bid to repair their relationship, Lesicka proposed to Chilvers. But while he accepted, he did not tell his family, and they remained stuck in a destructive rut. After learning of the affair with Miss Spencer, Lesicka told the court she dumped him in late 2014.

But a few weeks after the break-up she discovered she was expecting his child when an infection stopped her contraceptive pill from working. After James was born, mother and son moved to Lanzarote where Chilvers had moved following his promotion to captain in May 2015.

According to Lesicka he continued to bully and demean her, allegedly half-strangling her and making her swallow his facial hair.

The jury in Chilvers’s trial was told she interpreted his cruel behaviour ‘as him punishing her for having James’. ‘It seemed to Magda Lesicka that Peter Chilvers genuinely hated her,’ said Mr Hall.

In 2016 Lesicka discovered Chilvers was still sleeping with Miss Spencer, and she and James moved back to Britain where he funded a house for her in Wythenshawe and visited regularly. Lesicka’s fear of Chilvers was revealed in court, which heard that she had made internet searches about ‘taser UK law’, ‘self defence weapons UK’ and ‘killing in self defence’ in the days before James’s death.

In an effort to break out, she reported his behaviour to police, visited Women’s Aid and contacted a solicitor. During a series of calls on the morning of August 26, 2017, Lesicka tried to persuade Chilvers it would be better to separate.

In 2016 Lesicka discovered Chilvers was still sleeping with Miss Spencer, and she and James moved back to Britain where he funded a house for her in Wythenshawe and visited regularly

In a recording – played to a jury at Chilvers’s trial – he ranted that he would ‘take you to ****ing court and I will ****ing win and there’s many ****king reasons why I will’. Apparently resigning herself to putting up with the dysfunctional relationship, Lesicka called police saying she wanted to withdraw her complaint against Chilvers.

He meanwhile dropped James off with her and flew a holiday jet to Tenerife. Exactly what happened next is unclear, but at 11.55pm he returned to find a bloodied Lesicka. Police rushed to the house and found James’s blood-covered body on a bed.

Lesicka was treated for self-inflicted stab wounds, at one stage having to be placed in restraint to stop her pulling apart her stitches.She had suffered a mental breakdown without any warning.

For his part, Chilvers – who has been on bail throughout – now has two children aged 17 months and ten months by Miss Spencer.

Her Facebook page shows the quartet apparently enjoying the happy family life that was denied to Lesicka and James.

Describing the relationship in his evidence, Chilvers said Miss Spencer was ‘a very special girl’.

‘She has been my rock since everything happened,’ he said. ‘She stood by me, I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for her.’

In September – on what would have been James’s fourth birthday – Chilvers posted on Facebook: ‘Jamie, my beautiful and wonderful darling. We all miss you desperately. Two years since your murder and still nothing has been done. On this day, your birthday, I solemnly promise you that I will fight for justice for you darling.’

With Chilvers’s imprisonment yesterday that justice finally came.   

Controlling Ryanair pilot, 33, is jailed for 18 months for putting his fiancee through a ‘living hell’, nicknaming her ‘sheep’ and tormenting her until he triggered a mental breakdown that led her to stab their 23-month-old son to death

By HENRY MARTIN 

A Ryanair pilot who put his fiancee through ‘living hell’ with relentless psychological torment that culminated in her stabbing their 23-month-old son to death has been jailed for 18 months. 

Flight captain Peter Chilvers, 33, repeatedly threatened to kill Magda Lesicka if she removed their son James from his care – and also demanded they live together at a home he bought in Wincham, Cheshire, jurors were told.  

Chilvers’s controlling and coercive behaviour between December 2015 and August 2017 included using or threatening physical violence, forcing her into degrading sexual acts, isolating her from her friends and restricting her finances. 

He nicknamed Lesicka ‘sheep’, referring to himself as a ‘sheep owner’, and would pick hairs from his forehead and force her to swallow them, Manchester Crown Court heard. 

Prosecutor Rob Hall also said that Chilvers dictated to Lesicka who she saw and when she went out.

Mr Hall said: ‘Over the months and years that followed, Peter Chilvers repeatedly mistreated and bullied Magda Lesicka at ever increasing levels to see what he could get away with.

‘Ultimately, Peter Chilvers treated Magda Lesicka as if she was a possession to do with as he pleased.’

Peter Chilvers pictured with James: Chilvers nicknamed Magda Lesicka ‘sheep’ and referred to himself as a ‘sheep owner’

Peter Chilvers with Magdalena Lesicka. Chilvers, from Northwich, Cheshire, denied any wrongdoing and subsequently went on trial where a jury convicted him last month of controlling or coercive behaviour

Lesicka, also 33, inflicted a sustained attack on their son at her home in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, in August 2017 and then tried to kill herself (pictured: Lesicka with James)

Chilvers was cleared last month of two allegations of rape and one count of assault by penetration but a judge said it was clear he had been ‘sexually controlling’ towards his fiancee.

The judge told Chilvers: ‘Whilst I accept that the jury acquitted you of the more serious sexual offences, it is undoubtedly the case that throughout the relevant period, particularly when you and Magdalena Lesicka were not sharing a bed, you continued to treat her as your sexual property.

‘To use her words, you would help yourself to her body and she would consent because she felt that she had to whatever was required of her. Such was your control that she felt she had to put up with it.

‘Throughout the period with which this indictment is concerned your behaviour towards Magdalena Lesicka was that of a selfish, entitled bully. I have detected no more than a hint of your remorse.’ 

The couple had been in relationship since 2010 but Chilvers cheated on Lesicka from 2014 with another Ryanair cabin crew member, Lisa Spencer (pictured), jurors were told

Polish national Lesicka, also 33, was jailed for 15 years last year when she pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility after baby James was found with multiple stab wounds two years ago.

In the days before the killing on August 26, Lesicka made internet searches about ‘taser UK law’, ‘self defence weapons UK’ and ‘killing in self defence’ before she later contacted domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid. 

The case can today be reported after restrictions were lifted as Chilvers was jailed for 18 months for displaying controlling or coercive behaviour, common assault and damaging property. 

Chilvers and Lesicka appeared to enjoy a perfect lifestyle as they travelled the world with their son James.

But all was not well under the surface as Chilvers had already cheated with two women before James was born in September 2015.

The pair met at a party in 2010 when both were based out of a German airport.

A month later they kissed at the staff Christmas party and started a relationship, moving in together.

Chilvers later transferred to Liverpool Airport and Polish national Lesicka joined him, only to become isolated.

Her social life suffered after she became financially dependent on the pilot.

Chilvers cheated with another Ryanair cabin crew member, Lisa Spencer, who is now his partner and mother to his two young daughters. 

In April 2015, Lesicka discovered Chilvers affair with Ms Spencer. 

Chilvers promised Lesicka he would stop seeing Ms Spencer but told the jury he was ‘weak’ and, unbeknown to Lesicka, was drawn back to the other woman.

Soon after James’s birth the couple moved to Lanzarote when Chilvers was promoted to captain.

Lesicka again found herself isolated and financially restricted on the Spanish holiday island, the court heard.

In 2016 she discovered the pilot was still cheating on her with Ms Spencer and suggested she and James should leave Lanzarote for the UK.

Mr Hall said: ‘Peter Chilvers responded with words to the effect of, ”If you ever try and run away and hide, I will find you and will kill you”.’

In August 2016, Lesicka moved with James to Wythenshawe and Chilvers joined her in 2017 when he started flying in and out of Manchester Airport.

In July 2017, she discovered she was pregnant again but could not cope with being trapped in an “abusive, humiliating and dishonest relationship”, said Mr Hall.

On August 15 she had an abortion without Chilvers’ knowledge, and told him two days later.

Nine days after that, less than two weeks after her abortion, she stabbed her son to death. 

Pictured: The house in Wythenshaw, Manchester where the child was found stabbed in 2017

Chilvers told jurors: ‘[Lisa Spencer] is a very special lady. She has been my rock since everything happened. She has really stood by me. I don’t think I would be here now if it was not for her.’ Pictured: Lisa Spencer

When Lesicka had threatened to leave him, Chilvers told her she would be walking out on her son, calling her a ‘dumb b****’ and insisting she would never take the child away from him.

He also said that if she were to put James in a car and drive him away she would be ‘done for abduction’, and if she got legal aid to fight her case it would be ‘negligible [compared] to what I’m able to put up’.

The pilot warned her in a ‘visceral’ phone call that she did not have the financial resources to win a custody battle and shouted: ‘I want James to have brothers and sisters… not a half brother and sister with a f***ing moron that you find.’ 

Lesicka inflicted a sustained attack on their son as he lay in his bed at her home in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, in August 2017 and then tried to kill herself.

A post-mortem examination revealed the boy had suffered multiple stab wounds. 

Lesicka gave evidence in the prosecution of Chilvers at Manchester Crown Court, with parts of her victim personal statement, which she composed in prison, read out at his sentencing.

She said it was hard to see herself as a victim ‘given the tragic outcome’, adding: ‘When I started a relationship with Peter Chilvers I had absolutely no idea he would be the controlling monster I discovered him to be. 

The Crown accepted Lesicka’s defence that she killed James (pictured) following a breakdown induced by the ‘deliberate, relentless and ultimately overwhelming psychological torment’ inflicted by Chilvers

Chilvers, from Northwich, Cheshire, denied any wrongdoing and subsequently went on trial where a jury convicted him last month of controlling or coercive behaviour (pictured: Lisa Spencer) 

‘It is important that the public understand what Peter Chilvers’s abuse did to me. It destroyed me. I have no idea how he achieved this and I will probably spend the rest of my life trying to work out how he turned the confident ambitious me into what I am now.’ 

Lesicka was sentenced on the basis that her mental illness emerged suddenly and without any warning, and she had no memory of committing the offence.

When asked if she was considering any further action such as an appeal now that Chilvers had been sentenced, her solicitors offered no comment.  

Phone calls lay bare the abuse Peter Chilvers heaped on Magdalena Lesicka

Peter Chilvers walking out of Crown court in Manchester

Damning phone calls laid bare the ‘utter breakdown’ of Peter Chilvers’ and Magdalena Lesicka’s relationship in the hours before she she stabbed their son to death.   

In one such call on August 26, 2017, in the hours before James died, Lesicka told Chilvers that she believed it would be better for the pair to separate.

But in a rant described as ‘visceral’ and ‘demeaning’ by prosecutors, Chilvers said if she left him then he would maintain custody of James.

Chilvers said: ‘If (you try to take James away), I’m going to take you to f****** court and I will f****** win and there’s many f****** reasons why I will.

‘I will be living with my son, fight me on this, you won’t win, you haven’t got the resources, you haven’t got the support, you’ve not got anything, you’ve not got the location, you’ve got nothing, you will lose and then when you lose you will have set times when you can see your child that’s if you take me to court. If you walk out, you walk out on your own, it’s that simple, what’s it going to be?’

In another call, Chilvers’ continued shouting and ranting about what would happen if they split.

Chilvers said: ‘He’s not living with you if you take him away from me you dumb b****, why the f***…I will never agree to not living with your son…I will never stop you living with your son, in fact I’ve invited him to a f****** house you dumb b****.

‘If you put him in the car and drive away you will be arrested and you’ll be done for abduction and if you try and take him out of the country you really will be done for abduction…I’ll get a court to put an order on his passport, if you try to smuggle him out of the country and you’re caught, you’ll be going to jail.

‘Do you think I’m going to agree to you taking James to a different area, let’s face it, if it’s more than 10 minutes away from my house forget it, do you really want the whole life for the next decade let’s say to be this sort of battle?

‘Every single day, is that what you want to put James through?

‘You haven’t got the resources to fight this if you take it to court anyway and if you were to claim legal aid the amount you’d be able to get would be negligible to what I’m able to put up.

‘I want James to have brothers and sisters, not half brother and sister with a f****** moron that you find.’

During Chilvers’ trial, prosecutor Rob Hall said the calls confirmed ‘the bullying, controlling, self-centred nature of Peter Chilvers’s behaviour towards a ground-down Magda Lesicka’.

Mitigating at Lesicka’s sentencing hearing at Preston Crown Court last year, Timothy Roberts QC said the calls displayed the ‘ferocity and intensity of the manipulation of the defendant by Peter Chilvers’.

He said they set out a ‘series of impossible demands, portraying a landscape of unending misery if she did not comply with his demands’. 

Chilvers, from Northwich, Cheshire, denied any wrongdoing and subsequently went on trial where a jury convicted him last month of controlling or coercive behaviour.  

A judge, Mr Justice Dove, said that James Chilvers was a ‘tragic innocent victim caught between two warring parents’ when he sentenced Lesicka at Preston Crown Court. 

He said: ‘James Chilvers was not yet two years old when he was brutally stabbed to death by you. It was a sustained attack with a knife in which multiple blows were struck while on his bed at home.

‘He was a young child who was dearly loved and cherished by those around him. He was caught as a tragic innocent victim between two warring parents. 

‘Whatever the rights and wrongs of that dispute, the last thing that should have happened is he lose his life – killed by a parent.’

James’s grandparents, retired teachers Richard and Hilary Chilvers, attended the hearing and Mrs Chilvers tearfully read her victim personal statement from the witness box across from Lesicka, who was sitting in the dock.

Mrs Chilvers said: ‘Because of this tragedy James has been denied the rest of his life. Even at his tender age this was a life full of potential and promise.

‘He was just starting to speak and was making rapid progress. On the morning of the day he was killed he recognised the spelling of his name and James said it aloud to us.

‘We have all been deprived of James’s presence in our life. He was adorable, beautiful, inquisitive and loving.

‘We feel let down. For nearly seven years we welcomed Magdalena Lesicka into our family and got to know her well. We gave her kindness, friendship, support and love.

‘James’s death has devastated our family. We will never again be able to live life to the full.’

Peter Chilvers, who denied Lesicka’s allegations, was also in court for the sentencing.

In his statement read to the court, he said: ‘James Andrew Chilvers was a delightful little boy, always cheerful and great fun to be with. I devoted all of my spare time to be with him. He was my life.

‘He was exceptionally bright and talented in everything he did. He was beautiful with his blond hair, blue eyes and angelic smile.

‘As James’s parents we both had great plans and wanted the best for him as James’s life had been one great holiday. Due to our lifestyle, James had been used to travelling extensively, visited nine countries.

‘Shortly before his untimely death we purchased a new home that would have provided the stability he needed. He would have had a fantastic childhood and life thereafter. He was so cruelly and viciously robbed of his life.

‘Losing James has left a massive void in our life. The experience of the past year has completely broken me.

‘The sense of pain, loss and betrayal are far beyond what anyone should experience in their life.’

At his trial at Manchester Crown Court in October, Chilvers, from Northwich, Cheshire, admitted he had cheated on Lesicka, from Wythenshawe, since 2014 with another Ryanair cabin crew member.

He said Lisa Spencer was now his current partner.

He told jurors: ‘She is a very special lady. She has been my rock since everything happened. She has really stood by me. I don’t think I would be here now if it was not for her.’

Mark Ford QC, defending, said character references for Chilvers provided to the court painted a ‘very different picture’ to that given by Lesicka.

He said that Ms Spencer had attested to a supportive, co-operative and loving relationship with Chilvers. 

Peter Chilvers with James. In the days before the killing on August 26, Lesicka made internet searches about ‘taser UK law’, ‘self defence weapons UK’ and ‘killing in self defence’

Lesicka with James. Lesicka phoned Greater Manchester Police and two police officers were sent to her address on August 25 where she showed them bruises to her arms and thigh

Chilvers, originally from Stoke-on-Trent, had downloaded an app on to his mobile phone which enabled him to record his calls (left: Chilvers. Right: Lisa Spencer)

Leading up to the tragic killing, Lesicka phoned Greater Manchester Police and two police officers were sent to her address on August 25 where she showed them bruises to her arms and thigh.

She was informed the next day that Chilvers would be arrested after he flew back to the UK and a scared Lesicka said she did not want that to happen.

However she was told it was police policy to take positive action over such allegations.

The Crown accepted Lesicka’s defence that she killed James following a breakdown induced by the ‘deliberate, relentless and ultimately overwhelming psychological torment’ inflicted by Chilvers who had portrayed a ‘landscape of unending misery if she did not comply with his demands’.  

As part of the evidence the court heard a 33-minute phone call made by Chilvers on the morning of August 26 to Lesicka – before the killing – in which at times he screamed profanities at her.

Chilvers, originally from Stoke-on-Trent, had downloaded an app on to his mobile phone which enabled him to record his calls.

Rob Hall, prosecuting, said Chilvers’s intention may have been to aid any forthcoming legal proceedings over his son’s future but instead he had inadvertently confirmed his ‘bullying, controlling, self-centred nature’.

Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Richard Eales, of Greater Manchester Police, said: ‘If people take anything away from this heartbreaking case, please let it be that there is support and help available for those who are suffering at the hands of domestic abuse.

‘Most importantly though, I hope today’s result has seen justice served for the person who matters most – James.’

At Lesicka’s sentencing hearing, Mr Justice Dove told her: ‘James Chilvers was not quite two years old when he was brutally stabbed to death by you.

‘It was a sustained attack with a knife in which multiple blows were struck whilst he was on his bed at home.

‘There was no conceivable outcome other than he would be killed.

‘His unique presence in the world was taken from us.

‘Who knows what he might have grown up to achieve?’

Peter Chilvers with James. At Lesicka’s sentencing hearing, Mr Justice Dove said: ‘Who knows what he might have grown up to achieve?’

Chilvers, originally from Stoke-on-Trent, had downloaded an app on to his mobile phone which enabled him to record his calls. He said Lisa Spencer (pictured) was now his current partner