Newport murderer jailed for life (From South Wales Argus)

Newport murderer Gavin Mills jailed for life for killing Polish baker Jerzy Dubiniec

2:01pm Tuesday 30th October 2012 in News By Chris Wood, Reporter

A MURDERER who punched, kicked and stamped a man to death in the street has been jailed for life.

Gavin Mills, 26, of Glebe Street, Newport, will have to serve a minimum of 12-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to the murder of Jerzy Dubiniec on August 20, 2011.

Mr Dubiniec, a baker from Poland, had only been in Wales for a matter of weeks when he was killed in an attack in Broad Street as he made his way home from work.

Mills pleaded guilty to murder this morning, on the second day of his trial, having previously denied the charge.

Witnesses reported seeing a man repeatedly punch and kick Mr Dubiniec at around 3.30am on August 20. Mills was seen taking the pulse of Mr Dubiniec as he lay on the floor, only to start kicking him again.

Mills phoned Christina Hobbs, a friend who had been out with him the previous evening, saying: “Oh Chris I just hit someone and then a car has run over him and I think he's killed."

She found Mills crying and crouched in the middle of the road while Mr Dubiniec was in a pool of blood, but did not appear to be dead.

Prosecutor Gregg Taylor QC said she told Mills he was still breathing and said "we're not going to leave him" while on the phone to the ambulance service.

But, as she turned back, she saw him jumping and landing with both feet on his body.

Mr Dubiniec spent more than 40 years working as a baker and retired in 2000. Because he missed his work, he came to Newport to help Daniel Binek at his bakery in Enterprise Way.

He had never been out of Poland before and spoke no English, he left his homeland on July 27.