A British holidaymaker has discovered how a bouncer laughed in his experience when his friend died in a Polish strip club right after becoming forced to drink 22 pictures.
Mark Cocks, 36, collapsed in 2017 soon after staying plied with nearly two dozen pictures of sturdy alcohol at Krakow’s Wild Night club although on a night out with his university pal Steven Skiba.
Secret surrounds the tragic incident, but this week law enforcement in Poland arrested seven people in excess of his death as component of an investigation into an organised criminal offense gang behind a series of fatalities of foreigners who were being allegedly drugged and robbed at the infamous club.
Now, Mr Skiba, a father-of-two, has arrive forward to inform of the horror of the fateful evening in the lap dancing club – and how a bouncer howled in his confront when he advised him: ‘Your good friend is dead’.
Talking solely to MailOnline from his residence in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, in which he functions as a fisherman, Mr Skiba, 40, has instructed of the horrors of the night six years in the past – from thinking he experienced been spiked, to the stress of not currently being equipped to discover his good friend.
Mark Cocks, 36, collapsed in 2017 after getting plied with virtually two dozen shots of robust alcohol at Krakow’s Wild Evening club
Steven Skiba explained his close friend as a ‘top lad’. Mr Skiba (2nd remaining) is pictured with Mr Cock’s (centre right) on holiday together
Talking completely to MailOnline, Mr Skiba (remaining and ideal) has advised of the horrors of the night time in Krakow 6 many years in the past
Mr Skiba said when the pair arrived in Krakow, they inadvertently identified on their own in the Wild Evenings club – wherever Mr Cocks would get rid of his life considerably less than 24 several hours later.
The pair had jetted to Poland on a whim after enjoying a string of vacations together. He said they were being in the pub determining between Amsterdam or Krakow, just before deciding on the later because of his Polish sounding title.’
‘We just upped and went, actually. It was fully spur of the minute trip. I had a great work then, fishing, with fantastic cash coming in. We have been both of those solitary and considered why not?
‘We understood to be careful at the strip golf equipment and check out our cards. We explained prior to we went, if we are heading in people places, we are only going in with the proper sum of money and to just take nothing at all else.
‘We’ve had close friends who experienced been there who’d experienced their pockets vacant. So we knew to maintain our wits about us.’
Mr Skiba claimed: ‘The night prior to it happened we acquired dragged into the identical club. We only experienced just one consume in there and they have been pestering us to stay. But we went household.
‘I was up lousy all night, spewing. I thought I had been spiked. I’d under no circumstances felt so unwell. In the morning, I however felt rough from just the one particular drink. God appreciates what they’d offered me. I failed to want to go out the adhering to evening but I felt bad for Mark. I failed to want to wreck his journey.
‘So we went out, just with the intention of acquiring a few of pints. We went to the primary sq. but all the bars ended up very posh and not actually what we ended up into. We wanted anything a bit additional like our locals – anything a bit more tough and ready.
‘We went all-around the facet street and which is where by the strip club was. The guy outdoors pestered us to go in. He wouldn’t just take no for an respond to.
M r Skiba claimed when the pair arrived in Krakow, they inadvertently discovered by themselves in the Wild Evenings club
Mystery surrounds the tragic incident, but this 7 days law enforcement in Poland arrested 7 folks above mark Cock’s loss of life. A person of the suspects is pictured
Mr Skiba has now occur ahead to inform of the horror of the fateful night time in the Krakow lap dancing club
Mr Skiba said that as soon as inside, the males experimented with to depart but were hounded into keeping.
‘When we tried out to go, there were 4 or four of the staff all over us, expressing ‘no, don’t go away – absolutely free dance, free dance’. Mark was like ‘free dance, ok – but nothing at all far more – no money’. They took us earlier the bar, down a extended corridor, with curtained booths.
‘I went into 1, and Mark went into another. The upcoming detail this woman walked in with a card device and a Coke-sized bottle of something. I was striving to get out. I was not fascinated. I realized what their game was. I was pushing my way previous them. I threw a bank observe at them and ran in the direction of the bar.’
Mr Skiba explained he went back again to the bar, hoping to see Mr Cocks.
‘I could not see Mark anywhere. Then two other males came out of the corridor, slipping all about the area. They have been sliding down the partitions. I would in no way observed something like it. They couldn’t stand up. They just stored collapsing. They ended up expressing around and about once more ‘no, this is erroneous, these ladies just rob’.
‘I started receiving really worried for Mark. My mobile phone had died, so I requested a male if I could use his cellphone to mail him a Fb information. I wrote: ‘Get out of there ideal now – they’re robbing you’. I have no plan if he ever observed that message.’
Progressively anxious, Mr Skiba advised how he flagged down a law enforcement car outside the house the location to express his worries.
‘I informed them ‘my friend’s in there – he’s in trouble’. They just laughed at me and drove off. A person arrived about from a shop future doorway and reported to me ‘sorry to tell you, but these officers get the job done for the club – it is really all Polish mafia’.I was appropriately panicking.
‘Two bouncers had been guarding the corridor. They wouldn’t permit me through to see Mark. They held declaring ‘he’s not a scrooge like you – he’s owning pleasurable. He’s paying money. I begged the bar personnel to get Mark out of there but they just stored striving to sell me drinks.’
Polish raided night time clubs and arrested suspects last calendar year all through an investigation into an organised prison group extorting revenue from prospects at nightclubs
Strippers at the Wild Night club in Krakow are pictured within the establishment, which has due to the fact closed in the Polish city
Krakow’s Aged Town utilised to host the Wild Nights club just before the establishment’s subsequent closure
Mr Skiba informed how he realised a thing was badly incorrect when two strippers ran into the bar space ‘screaming and crying’.
But he continue to experienced no notion about the fate of his mate.
‘I observed the paramedics from a distance executing CPR on someone’s chest,’ he reported.
‘I questioned the staff members – is that my pal? They ended up likely ‘no, no, your close friend is fine’.
‘Then the two bouncers came out laughing and joking. I claimed to one particular of them ‘is my mate all right?’. He appeared at me, laughed and reported ‘your pal is dead’.
‘I just fell to the ground on my hands and knees. I was in complete shock.’
Mr Skiba was quizzed by police in Poland prior to traveling back again to England by itself.
Officers experienced claimed Mr Cocks had been drunk when he entered the strip club, but spouse and children and mates insist this was not correct.
He was allegedly robbed of PLN 2,200, about £420, in money.
Mr Skiba stated: ‘I’ve study things which suggests we have been drunk when we went in there, but we weren’t. We’d only experienced just one pint.
‘Mark was not in the booth for very lengthy so they must have compelled the stuff down his throat or laced it with medicine.
‘Mark was a bit additional timid than I am. When they came in and commenced pressuring him, he was likely frightened and did what they informed him.
‘I blame myself for what transpired. I sense I need to have had his back again. I felt like I might permit him down. I sense ashamed to say I was frightened, but I did not know what variety of matter we were being messing with.
Polish police officers raided a sequence of strip clubs in Krakow as part of an investigation into an organised criminal gang
Polish police raided night time clubs and arrested suspects past year all through an investigation into an organised criminal team
Picture demonstrates the monitoring centre in a single of the strip golf equipment that was raided previous 12 months
Polish law enforcement raided a sequence of strip golf equipment in Poland previous 12 months and arrested dozens of suspects
Photo exhibits the monitoring centre in a person of the strip clubs that was raided very last yr
‘It’s tortured me every single day because. When he mentioned ‘do you want to go to Krakow or Amsterdam’ – if I’d decided on Amsterdam, he would still be right here.
Mr Skiba is convinced that his lifelong friend Mr Cocks was drugged as well as forced to down super-strong alcoholic beverages since he was a large drinker who could have quickly walked out of the club right after ingesting 22 photographs.
‘Mark was not drunk when he went into the club. We might only had just one pint. And he came out lifeless.’
He mentioned Mr Cocks, a Leeds United supporter, was ‘stone cold sober’ when he arrived at the club, possessing only had a pint of beer beforehand.
‘He could manage a drink. On a Sunday session, he’d knock back again 10 pints effortlessly.
‘They say he was pressured to drink 22 photographs. But Mark could very easily have drunk 22 shots and walked out of there, I know he could have.
‘I’m confident whatever he drank was laced with drugs, like a date-rape drug so they could rob him.’
Polish prosecutors stated in 2017 that Mr Cocks experienced been ‘led into a deep state of intoxication’ right after remaining specified 22 unordered portions of ‘high-evidence alcohol’.
They included: ‘Acute poisoning with ethyl alcoholic beverages led to the focus in the victim’s human body and urine, as a end result of which the guy died.’
Mr Cocks’ family have been hoping to look for justice around his death for over six several years.
Mr Skiba explained his close friend as a ‘top lad’. ‘I’d recognised him from university. We played pool together all the time. Poland was the fourth holiday we’d been on together.’
