Browse Sections

• Education
• Special reports

Whirlwind which tore apart cosy family life

14/11/2007

THEY could have been any loving mother and devoted son posing for the camera in front of their Rochdale home.

As they stand next to the Hillman Avenger car which was his pride and joy they don’t seem to have a care in the world.

Little did they know that within a matter of months they would be engulfed by a whirlwind which would ultimately destroy their lives.

For Charlotte and Stefan Kiszko were also innocent victims of the Lesley Molseed murder.

Stefan Ivan Kiszko was born on 24 March 1952.

His father, Ivan, was one of the first Ukrainians to arrive in Rochdale at the end of the Second World War.

A big, powerfully-built man, he had a military bearing and was known as ‘Big John’ or ‘The Colonel’.

Mother Charlotte was from Slovenia.  They lived in Crawford Street.

Stefan was a sickly child, among other things being an asthma sufferer and spent much of his youth in and out of hospital and in the care of specialists.

A good deal of time was spent, too, in Austria with his grandmother.

She later moved to Rochdale to look after him while his parents were at work.

Despite his problems Stefan was an accomplished piano-accordianist and used to play at Ukrainian gatherings in Rochdale and Middleton.

For four years he attended Kingsway Middle School, where headmaster Ronald DeCourcey described him as: “A very pleasant and often quite generous boy. He never caused any problems at school.”

He took his O -levels at Rochdale College and in 1969 – at the age of 17 – passed the Civil Service exam and started work at the Inland Revenue department at Lonsdale House.

But during the following 12 months he suffered a devastating double blow.

First his grandmother died, then his father collapsed and died in front of him in Kingsway.

Stefan was a competent clerk who didn’t cause any problems for his employers.

He was a loner, however, and his social life was virtually non-existent. He had no close friends and few relationships with people of his own age.

With his ungainly physique he found social interaction difficult and was occasionally the target for ridicule.

Despite his size he suffered from hypogonadism – an underdevelopment of the sexual organs which had the side effect of a lack of male aggression. He was also impotent.

Spending most of his spare time at home, he was a keen stamp collector and photographer.

He would drive his mother and aunt about in the car she bought for him and would occasionally go to the cinema.

Only recently they had moved from Crawford Street to Kings Road.

But their cosy little lifestyle was blown apart in December 1975.