Man found guilty of Ipswich murder

A man has been found guilty of murder following the death of a man in his home in Ipswich last year.

Police were called at 11.37am on Tuesday 23 December to reports that a man had been found dead within a property in College Street, Ipswich.

The ambulance service attended but Ilja Akatjevas, 39, was declared deceased at the scene. A Home Office post-mortem examination indicated that the man died as a result of injuries to his head.

A 38-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman were arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and taken to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre for questioning. 

Lithuanian national, Arvydas Maliusis, 38, of Recorder Road, Norwich, was subsequently charged with murder. The woman that was arrested, now aged 42, was told in February that she would face no further action by police.

During the trial at Ipswich Crown Court, the court was told how Maliusis had called the police on 23 December to report his friend was dead inside his property. He had told attending officers that he had been attacked by Ilja the previous day and that he had hit him back twice but stated to officers that ‘there was no way my punches could have killed him’.

A witness, who was inside the property when an altercation between the two men occurred, told the court that after consuming vodka as a group, Ilja started to act erratically and wanted them to leave. She described how the two men had been play-fighting earlier in the evening, but things had turned more aggressive, during which she herself was pushed over by Ilja. Following this, Maliusis became enraged and attacked Ilja, punching him to the ground and then repeatedly punching him in the face for around five minutes.

The pair left the scene before returning the next morning so that Maliusis could look for a mobile phone which he had left behind. After finding Ilja unresponsive on the floor in the same position he had left him in, Maliusis called the emergency services.

Maliusis was remanded in custody by the court to return on 6 August for sentencing.