Bori Benko murderer Zbigniew Soj had spoken about charity fundraising months before sadistic attacks

The smiling University of Bradford student in his charity fundraising shirt had ambitions to join the Civil Service. He spoke openly about the dark time he had suffered with tinnitus and insomnia but said: ‘I found light at the end of this deep tunnel.’

Yet soon afterwards Zbigniew Pawel Soj, known as Paul, brutally and horrifically attacked two young women at night in their beds.

READ MORE: Zbigniew Soj jailed for at least 31 years for Bradford murder of Bori Benko

Borbala ‘Bori’ Benko was stabbed 40 times in one of the most terrible crimes Bradford has seen in many a year. Soj then attempted to murder Klaudia Rogozinka before trying to kill himself by slashing his neck.

Bori Benko, whose life was brutally cut short by her murderer Zbigniew Soj

On Friday he was jailed for life with a minimum of 31 years behind bars for the ‘sexual and sadistic’ murder of Miss Benko, and for 14 years to run concurrently for attempting to murder Miss Rogozinka.

Soj carried out his dreadful acts nine months after speaking publicly about his charity work and his hopes for the future after graduating from the university.

READ MORE: 'Bori had a bright future and devoted her life to teaching young children', says mum

When he was interviewed for a T&A article in February last year he was a final year politics student planning to walk or run 100km to raise £200 for the British Tinnitus Association.

Then aged 23 and a sufferer with the condition himself, he told of his battle with the high-pitched noise in his head and the insomnia that made him feel down every day.

Zbigniew Pawel Soj was raising both money and awareness for tinnitus when he posed for this picture

“I started losing any hope that my life would ever get better. It was truly the darkest time I have been ever through. Nevertheless, I found light at the end of this deep tunnel,” he said.

But in the early hours of November 21, after getting ‘smashed’ and watching a violent horror film he set out to kill at least two people.

He told his psychiatrist he was drunk and depressed and ‘some demons got to me.’

Tragically, Miss Benko, 24, and Miss Rogozinka, 21, were asleep in their unlocked bed-rooms in the separate flats the three of them were living in at The Discovery Centre in Sherborne Road, Great Horton.

Soj went to the kitchen and got two knives, sharpening one of them.

He first tried the door of a male occupant at the flats but he couldn’t get in. He moved on to Miss Benko’s room where he savagely murdered her.

Zbigniew Soj

Miss Rogozinka then heard her bedroom door opening and saw Soj ‘jumping towards her.’ He tried to strangle her and he put a pillow across her face until she felt dizzy. She too was stabbed, nine times in the chest, shoulder and arm.

He told her he was suffering from depression and ‘jealous that other people can have normal lives and I can’t.’

Bradford Crown Court heard that Soj had cut away Miss Benko’s clothing and there were indications of some sexual activity.

He later said he acted out of curiosity or jealousy, finding out what it was like to kill someone. He told his psychiatrist that he was sexually inexperienced because of his re-ligion.

His barrister, Richard Wright QC, said Soj had grappled with why he had done these wicked acts and could not properly answer.

Soj was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court

He was suffering with a neurotic depressive illness at the time and had been drinking while on medication, telling Miss Rogozinka: “We got smashed and I guess some de-mons got to me.”

Judge Jonathan Rose said Soj had formed ‘a settled intention to kill one or more peo-ple.’ His depressive illness was ‘precious little mitigation’ when he had mixed alcohol with his medication, and the sexual acts involved in Miss Benko’s murder increased its depravity.

When Soj first appeared before the crown court both his arms were heavily bandaged. He sat in the booth at Leeds Prison looking like an empty shell of a man. One who could scarcely comprehend the enormity of what he had done.

He told police at the scene: “I deserve to die right now. I was drunk. I have become a murderer.”

Soj will stay behind bars until he is at least 55 years old. That is ample time for him to reflect on the heartbreak and destruction wrought by a night of drunken, depraved and ferocious madness.

And surely he will be asking himself again and again what demons had driven him to so viciously and sadistically kill what he himself described as ‘such a good girl’.

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