He boasted about the scribbled tenement houses, but he never heard the verdict

Tymoteusz P. marked buildings in Krakow with his tag. He posted their photos on the Internet, writing that “the city must be done properly.” Despite his activity on social media and the fact that he had been carrying out his activity since 2014, the police had trouble tracing him. Reason? Sicoer only visited Krakow, and he lived in Poznań on a daily basis. “Several weeks of tedious activities allowed the police to track down a pseudo-graffiti artist, who was widely reported in the press. It was not easy to track down the vandal. It turned out that no one in Krakow knew him… It also turned out that he came all the way from Poznań for 'guest performances' , where he permanently lives,” the Małopolska police reported at the time.

Ultimately, the Poznań resident was detained right after he came to the capital of Lesser Poland once again. The police found spray paint and designs for further pseudo-graffiti on him. He was charged in the prosecutor's office, and the indictment was brought to court in April 2016. It concerned Article 288 of the Penal Code (destruction of property) and Article 108 of the Act on the Protection of Monuments (destruction or damage to a monument). This is punishable by up to five and eight years in prison, respectively. There were a total of 41 allegations.

During the hearings, according to Gazeta Wyborcza, the accused admitted to being the author of the scribbles on Krakow's tenement houses.

The first judgment in this case was passed in 2018. The last one, after another appeal filed by the prosecutor's office, in May 2024 – nine years after the arrest of the pseudo-graffiti artist.

We asked about the details of the trial at the Krakow District Court. “The court carefully conducted evidentiary proceedings, questioning the accused and a number of witnesses (…). In addition, the court in the case in question obtained an expert's opinion on the valuation of movable property, written and then supplementary: written and oral, in which the expert indicated, among other things, that the inscriptions had been made by spraying the objects with spray varnish, there was no mechanical damage,” we read in a statement sent to our editorial office.

Ultimately, the court decided that the Poznań resident had not committed a crime, but only a misdemeanor. The justification states that “destruction means the annihilation of an item or a significant disruption of its substance, which enables it to be used in accordance with its original properties and intended use.” The paint on the historic tenement house did not prevent such use.

And since, according to the court, Tymoteusz P.'s actions were a misdemeanor, they were time-barred (already in 2018) and there was no question of punishment. The prosecutor's office appealed against the verdict, but the second-instance court in May this year upheld the decision to discontinue the case. The judgment is final.

Does this mean that Tymoteusz P. will remain unpunished? Not necessarily – the city may still take up the fight to punish the graffiti artist. This was announced by Krakow councilor Łukasz Gibała. “The good news is that in response to my interpellation, the city authorities announced they would take further legal steps, including taking the case to civil action,” the local government official wrote on social media.

But the city hall is currently sparingly providing information about its activities. We asked not only about the lawsuit, but also about what Krakow can and intends to demand from Sicoer, exactly how many city tenement houses were scribbled and how much it cost to clean them.

– At this point, lawyers are dealing with the case and working on preparing a lawsuit against the graffiti artist. It will concern compensation for the devastation of municipal buildings. As a result of the perpetrator's actions, several city buildings were “painted”. In one of them, the inscriptions were on the wall, and in the remaining ones, on the entrance gates to the buildings – this is the answer we received.

Gazeta Wyborcza reports that in the criminal trial, the Krakow municipality estimated its losses caused by the pseudograffiti at PLN 2,011. The low amount was said to be due to the fact that although there were many scribbled tenement houses, only a few of them belonged to the city, and the rest were in private hands.