Murder of Lesley Molseed - Release and Death

Release and Death

Kiszko needed further psychiatric treatment and continued to remain in Prestwich hospital though he was allowed home at weekends and occasionally during the week. He was finally allowed home fully in May 1992, three months after being cleared, but the years of incarceration for something he had not done had both mentally and emotionally destroyed him. Kiszko became a virtual recluse and showed little interest in anything or anyone. He drove his car again on short journeys, but other people's apologies for what had happened, encouragement and support seemed to frighten him on the rare occasions he ventured out. His mental health had deteriorated over the years, now did his physical health; in October 1993 he was diagnosed as suffering from angina.

Stefan Kiszko died of a massive heart attack, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, on 23 December 1993, at home, 18 years and two days after he made the confession that helped lead to wrongful conviction for murder. He was 41 years old. Lesley Molseed's sister was one of those who attended his funeral two weeks later on 5 January 1994. His mother, Charlotte Hedwig Kiszko, died four months later, in Rochdale, on 3 May 1994, at the age of 70. The two are buried together in Rochdale Cemetery.

After release from prison Kiszko had been told he would receive £500,000 in compensation for the years spent in prison. He had received an interim payment, but neither he nor his mother ever received the full amount they were awarded, since both died before Kiszko was due to receive it.

A TV film adaptation of the tragic story of Stefan Kiszko was made in 1998, A Life for a Life, directed by Stephen Whittaker, featuring Tony Maudsley as Kiszko and Olympia Dukakis as his mother Charlotte. A documentary about the case, Real Crime: The 30 Year Secret, was broadcast by ITV1 on 29 September 2008.