The priest, spies and a 50-year murder mystery

Reporter ANDREW HEBDEN reopens the dusty file to see if anyone can cast any new light on the unsolved case that many believed was murder.

It was shortly before 7pm, on the sunny evening of July 13, 1953, when Polish Priest Father Henrik Borynski received a telephone call at his lodgings in Little Horton Lane, Bradford.

His landlady, Mrs Beck, heard the telephone and saw Father Borynski talking in hushed tones down the phone, with one hand cupped over the receiver.

Moments later, he picked up his coat and hat and left the house, leaving all his other belongings behind.

Jozef Wojciechowski, 80, said his brother Karol, was the last person to see the Priest.

"He met him just outside St Luke's Hospital after he had left his lodgings," recalled Jozef, vice chairman of the Polish Combatants Association. "My brother started to talk to him, but he said that he didn't have much time and that he was going to play detective. He was never seen again."

His disappearance has baffled not only Bradford detectives, but Scotland Yard special branch, and even MI5, who investigated a host of conspiracy theories surrounding the drama at the height of the Cold War.

Even today - half a century on from his disappearance - members of Bradford's Polish community still debate his possible fate over drinks at their club in Edmund Street.

"It is still talked about and I'm glad the matter is being kept alive," said Jan Niczypevowicz, chairman of the Federation of Poles in Bradford. "It must be one of the most bizarre mysteries of all time."

Although the file at Bradford Central Police Station remains technically open, none of the dozens of lines of inquiry ever produced a definitive piece of evidence.

Monsignor Anthony Boylan, who is now Parish Priest at St John Fisher and St Thomas More Roman Catholic Church in Burley-in-Wharfedale, was an altar boy at the church where Father Borynski preached.

"When he went missing, everyone was left speechless," he said. "They couldn't cope with the idea that such a very important figure such as him could disappear without trace.

"I've never made my mind up what happened to him. I've listened to all the possible theories, but I was only 13 at the time so it was impossible to make a judgement."

Back at the club, the consensus is that there was a Communist plot to eliminate Father Borynski, described by one parishioner who knew him as "a marvellous man who was loved by everybody".

Father Borynski, 42, was renowned for his strong opinions about the Communist government that was operating in Poland in the wake of the Second World War.

"His sermons were very strongly anti-Communist," recalled John Grojec, who was reunited with Father Borynski in Bradford after being taught by him in Africa during the 1940s and later at a Polish Grammar School in Cambridgeshire.

"They were a strong attack on the Polish government which he criticised for their persecution of the Catholic church. He said they were refusing to allow us Poles back to the homeland."

John, who is now manager of the Polish Parish Club, said there was strong evidence at the time of a pro-Communist cell operating in Bradford which fed information to the authorities in Poland.

The small group occasionally met at a caf in Manningham Lane with a travel agent from Nottingham who helped co-ordinate the activities of Communists around the country.

Jozef Wojciechowski said he believed Father Borynski had uncovered a Communist secret, which Polish government officials were desperate for him not to disclose.

"Perhaps he knew something and they were afraid of it," he said. "That could have been what he meant by 'playing the detective'."

"Father Borynski was the kind of person they could have seen as a threat," said John. "He was a brilliant leader, extremely well respected and very talented. He was also operating in one of the biggest Polish communities in Britain."

The Communist link prompted the involvement of Scotland Yard Special Branch and MI5.

But speculation reached fever pitch in October 1962 when a professional Soviet assassin, who had been sentenced to eight years for the murder of another man, claimed that he had killed Father Borynski.

Bogdan Stashynski said he had given the Priest a lethal injection of cyanide and buried the body on Ilkley Moor on orders from 'the highest Soviet authorities'.

But - despite police combing the vast moorland - the remains of Father Borynski were never found.

And 83-year-old Feliks, who was a member of the 1,500-strong Polish community in Bradford during the early 1950s, is unconvinced by the claims.

"At that time, all priests were against Communism, and I don't think he was much different to anyone else in that sense," he said. "Father Borynski was just one of us; he only said what we were all saying."

Instead, the police hunt focused on the relationship between Father Borynski and his predecessor at Bradford, 58-year-old Canon Boleslaw Martynellis.

Canon Martynellis had been one of the first Poles to arrive in the city after the end of the war and he was known to be bitter when, in 1952, the Church authorities ordered him to give up the Bradford parish to make way for the up-and-coming Father Borynski.

"Even though he was asked to go, Martynellis didn't leave Bradford," recalled former Telegraph & Argus crime reporter Donald Alred, who extensively covered the Borynski affair. "There were those who supported him and he still preached in the city. He had his followers and Father Borynski had his. That's what sparked things off.

"Martynellis wasn't a likeable fellow and in my interviews he was very brisk. I got the impression that the pair disliked each other intensely because Martynellis felt he had been betrayed."

Jozef Wojciechowski said Father Borynski had told him personally that he had offered to share the parish duties on two occasions with Canon Martynellis, but he flatly refused.

Canon Martynellis was interviewed many times by police and at one point told reporters: "The police think I have murdered Father Borynski. How could an old man like me murder a man like Father Borynski who was 42? I have been praying for him."

But there was evidence linking him to the phone call that induced Father Borynski out of his home on July 13.

Earlier the same day, Father Borynski had told his superior, Canon H Czorny, that he had received a telephone call that morning from someone purporting to be acting on behalf of Canon Martynellis.

Father Borynski's landlady said the voice on the end of the line that evening had a similar, Polish voice, but Martynellis denied any knowledge of the calls.

The mystery deepened, however, less than a month later when Martynellis was found collapsed at his desk, with the Polish phrase for 'Be Silent, Priest' spelled out in matchsticks alongside him.

Although he said he had been the victim of an attack by two men, he later said he could have imagined everything and unconsciously spelt the message out himself. Two years later, Canon Martynellis died - his lips still sealed.

Sipping his vodka back in the Parish Club, John Grojec said he, like the police at the time, was convinced Canon Martynellis had known something of Father Borynski's disappearance - possibly through confession.

"I don't think Martynellis would have done any harm to him, but I think if he had knowledge of someone who wanted to harm him he wouldn't stand up against it. I think he knew something but took it to the grave."

Priest Monsignor Boylan said he thought it was "very unlikely" that someone capable of killing a Priest would ever divulge all in confession. "If that did happen, it would have put Canon Martynellis in a very difficult position," he said. "But over the years, many priests have been put in very difficult positions like that."

Fifty years on, it seems Bradford's most puzzling crime mystery will remain unresolved. But Jan Niczypevowicz has not given up yet. "My hope is that one day his remains might be found," he said. "It is very important to us that a great man like him is given a proper Christian burial."

l A BBC documentary also looks at the disappearance of Father Borynski. Inside Out is on BBC1 on Monday night at 7.30pm.