Killer sentenced to 26 years after returning to murder scene to drunkenly tell cops ‘what happened’

Marek Hecko, 26, from Chelmsford, Essex, has been found guilty of murder for a fatal knife attack on his love rival

Adrian Ellingford, 44, who was in bed with the defendant’s ex-girlfriend when he was fatally stabbed

Hecko dated Stephanie Breame for seven months, they broke up in May because she disapproved his drug use, but he continued to be “obsessed” with her

Ellingford, a married father of two, was stabbed twice in the back at a home in Nelson Grove on July 25, 2022

Hours later, bodycam worn by a cop guarding the crime scene recorded a visibly inebriated Hecko return while taking swigs from a half-empty bottle of brandy

“I know what happened,” he brags

“And you need me to figure it out, what happened – If you don’t have me, you don’t know what happened”

A man was sentenced Tuesday to 26 years in prison in Essex, UK for murder after he was caught on a body camera video stumbling back to the scene of the fatal stabbing and telling a police officer, “I know what happened.”
Marek Hecko, 26, from Chelmsford, Essex, has been found guilty of murder for knifing to death his romantic rival, 44-year-old Adrian Ellingford, who was in bed with Stephanie Breame, the defendant’s ex-girlfriend.
Ellingford, a married father of two, was stabbed twice in the back at a home in Nelson Grove on July 25, 2022.

A few hours later, footage from a police bodycam showed Hecko approaching one of the two police officers who was guarding the crime scene.r guarding the crime scene A visibly inebriated Hecko coming over while taking swigs from a half-empty bottle of brandy.
The officer can be heard asking Hecko to state his name. He declined, instead proceeds to brag, “I know what happened.
“And you need me to figure it out, what happened”.

Man who murdered father of two, returns to crime scene, drunk, to taunt police officer. Marek Hecko has been sentenced to life in prison

“If you don’t have me, you don’t know what happened.”
When the officer asks him to elaborate, Hecko replies: “I just know that some guy came here, and he f****ed up some guy.”
The officer presses further, with Hecko insisting that he knows what had happened, before slurring: “You’re gonna think about me but it’s not gonna be me because there’s no proof,” adding, “I know everything. This city is mine.”

The recording ends with Hecko’s arrest as uniformed officers struggle to bundle the musclebound suspect into a police van.
While in custody, Hecko was identified as the main suspect in the attack on Ellingford.
Prosecutors said Hecko had been in a relationship with Stephanie Breame for seven months before they broke up in May because she did not approve of his drug use.
However, he remained “obsessed” with his former lover, sending text messages and stalking her, according to Essexlive.

Breame later began dating Ellingford, who was married with two sons, ages 10 and 12.
On the night of the murder, Ellingford was staying at Breame’s home when he woke up in bed, saying someone was in the house, BBC reports.
A short time later, Ellingford collapsed to the bedroom floor with a knife lodged in his back. He walked to the end of the bed before collapsing, face first, onto the floor.
He was pronounced dead at the scene from two stab wounds.

The Chelmsford Crown Court was told Hecko broke into Breame’s home while she was in bed with Ellington.
The intruder took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the victim with such force that the blade struck a bone in the victim’s chest and the handle broke off.
Detectives said on the night of the killing Hecko bought two bottles of wine and walked to the home, which was captured on CCTV.
He left one bottle at the scene having drunk the alcohol, and then also left the handle of the knife, with his DNA on it, in the hallway, as it had snapped off when he stabbed Ellingford.
According to prosecutors, in the lead-up to the killing, the jilted boyfriend had been stalking his ex-girlfriend by showing up at her work and home uninvited and sending her messages and videos.
Judge Christopher Morgan said Hecko was “jealous of her and suspicious of her.”

At Hecko’s sentencing the victim’s widow, Laura Ellingford, delivered a lengthy victim impact statement, describing her late husband of 17 years as a “truly brilliant father” whose death has devastated the family.
“He was brutally ripped from our lives in events that I still can’t really comprehend myself or begin to explain to our boys,” the woman said.
“The impact of his death has affected many people in very different ways. It is totally heartbreaking.”
It took a jury less than a day to deliver the guilty verdict.
Hecko, who reportedly appeared emotionless in court, was sentenced to a minimum of 26 years in prison, with a credit for 230 days served.