Pawel Jezierski, charged with murdering Damian Buczek on Wylds Lane, died at HMP Hewell on 9 September. An Ombudsman inquiry and a jury inquest now follow.

The man charged with murdering a 42-year-old in a house on Wylds Lane in Worcester has died in prison. He had not stood trial, and the allegation against him was never tested in court.

Pawel Jezierski, 46, was found dead at HMP Hewell on the evening of Wednesday 9 September. A West Mercia Police spokesperson said: “There is not believed to be any third-party involvement in his death and a report will be prepared for the coroner.” (BBC News, 11 September 2026)

The force has not published that statement on its own website. It gave it to the media instead, and we have quoted it as the force worded it rather than taking anything else from the coverage. No cause of death has been given by anyone, and it is not for us to guess at one.

What the force itself published

Everything below comes from West Mercia Police’s own news pages, dated and quoted as the force wrote them.

  • Tuesday 1 September. Officers were called to an address on Wylds Lane “shortly after 9pm following reports that a man had been found with life threatening injuries inside a property”. The man was taken to hospital and died.
  • Thursday 3 September, 1.22pm. A murder investigation was launched. The force named the man who died as, in its words, “the 42-year-old man, who we believe to be Damian Buczek”, and released his photograph while it built a picture of his movements. (West Mercia Police)
  • Thursday 3 September, 8.59pm. A 46-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder. (West Mercia Police)
  • Monday 7 September, 12.12pm. “Pawel Jezierski, of Wylds Lane in Worcester, has been charged with murder.” He was remanded in custody and was due at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court that day. (West Mercia Police)
  • Wednesday 9 September. He was found dead at HMP Hewell.

Timeline of the Wylds Lane murder case in Worcester: officers called on 1 September 2026, a murder investigation launched and an arrest made on 3 September, Pawel Jezierski charged and remanded on 7 September, and found dead at HMP Hewell on 9 September

A charge is an allegation. Being arrested on suspicion of an offence, and being charged with it, are not findings of guilt, and no court reached one here.

Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Lougher of the Major Investigations Unit said in the 3 September appeal: “This is a tragic incident which has resulted in a man losing his life, and our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this extremely difficult time.” That appeal is still live on the force’s site, and it asks anyone who saw Damian Buczek between Monday 31 August and Tuesday 1 September, or who has CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage from the Wylds Lane area, to come forward. Information can also be given to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The prison is not in Worcester

HMP Hewell is at Hewell Lane, Redditch, in the Bromsgrove district, about 14 miles north east of Worcester city centre. (GOV.UK) It is the reception prison that takes men from courts across this part of the West Midlands, which is why a Worcester case ends up there.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons inspected it unannounced between 2 and 12 June 2025. Two findings matter for understanding what kind of place it is:

  • It is a category B reception prison with an operational capacity of 1,094, holding 1,013 men at the time of the inspection, and taking around 383 new arrivals a month.
  • 63% of the men held there were on remand or awaiting sentence, and another 10% had been recalled on licence. The majority, in other words, had not been convicted of the matter that put them there.

Inspectors rated safety at Hewell “not sufficiently good”, the same grade as in 2022, and reported that “support for prisoners at risk of suicide or self-harm was limited”. Of the 13 concerns raised in 2022, only six had been fully addressed. (Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Hewell, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 2025)

Seven deaths at Hewell in a year

The Ministry of Justice publishes every death in prison custody by establishment, by month and by type. Counting the Hewell rows in its own data tool gives seven deaths at HMP Hewell in the 12 months to June 2026, the latest period published. Three of those fell in the first half of 2026. (Deaths data tool, 2026 Q2, Ministry of Justice)

Nationally in the same 12 months there were 359 deaths in prison custody, a rate of 4.1 per 1,000 prisoners and a fall of 10% on the 401 deaths in the previous year. Of those 359, the Ministry classed 208 as natural causes, 71 as self-inflicted and eight as homicides, with 72 either non-natural or still awaiting classification. (Safety in Custody Statistics, England and Wales, published 30 July 2026)

This death is not in those figures. It happened after the period they cover, and its classification will be settled by the coroner, not by us.

What it means for you

The murder case will not come to trial. There will be no hearing at which the evidence is put, tested and decided. For Damian Buczek’s family that is the practical consequence of the past week.

Two official investigations now run instead, and both are automatic.

  • The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigates the deaths of prisoners in England and Wales whatever the cause. Its own guidance is blunt about how that starts: “You do not need to ask us to investigate a death as we are automatically told when someone has died.” It writes a report and, where appropriate, makes recommendations, and it assigns a family liaison officer to the bereaved family. (Prisons and Probation Ombudsman) The Ombudsman has already published ten fatal incident reports about HMP Hewell so far in 2026. (PPO, HMP Hewell reports)
  • The coroner holds an inquest. Where someone dies in custody or state detention, the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 requires a jury if the death was violent or unnatural, or if the cause of death is unknown. (Coroners and Justice Act 2009, section 7(2)) HMP Hewell sits in the administrative county of Worcestershire, so this falls to HM Senior Coroner for Worcestershire, Mr David Reid. (Worcestershire Coroner Service)

If you are worried about someone held at Hewell, the prison publishes two lines for exactly that. Call 01527 785 000 if you think a prisoner is at immediate risk of harm, and 01527 785 150 for concerns about a prisoner’s safety or wellbeing that are serious but not life-threatening. The Prisoners’ Families Helpline is 0808 808 2003. (GOV.UK)

We will update this page as the coroner opens the inquest and as the Ombudsman reports. Both take months rather than weeks.