A Polish decorator has been found guilty of killing his girlfriend during a frenzied attack at her flat in Hendon, but was cleared of murder at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Mariusz Kolodziejczk was convicted of manslaughter after he attacked 29-year-old manicurist Katarzyna Koziol on December 21 last year. She suffered more than 50 injuries, including 12 to her head and neck, during the assault at her home above a row of shops in Brent Street.

Ms Koziol's nine-year-old son was in the flat at the time, but did not give evidence during the week-long trial.

Kolodziejczk, who denied murdering Ms Koziol, left her lying unconscious in bed overnight. He did not call an ambulance until the next morning, when he invited a friend to the property and showed him Ms Koziol lying under a blanket with a black eye and swollen face. She died in hospital the following day.

Kolodziejczk will be sentenced on December 8.