Four men charged with murder in Nelson

Police have charged four men with murder following the death of a man in Nelson.

Officers were called by the North West Ambulance Service around 5.20am on Sunday, 5th November, to a report of a man – 53-year-old Andrej Minin – had been found deceased inside a house.

His family are aware of the news and are being supported by specially trained officers.

A Home Office post-mortem examination found that Andrei died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and neck.

As a result of enquiries, police arrested three people on suspicion of murder on Sunday and a fourth man on Tuesday.

Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, the following four men have been charged with murder.

Waldemar Bernacki, 51, of Fir Street Nelson

Laimonas Prascevicius, 53, of Fir Street, Nelson

Vasile Olaru, 56, of Fir Street, Nelson

Rimantas Vystartas, 54, of Fir Street, Nelson

DCI Mark Haworth-Oates, of the Force Major Investigation Team, said: “Andrej lost his life after being the victim of a serious and sustained assault and my thoughts are with his loved ones.

“The people charged with his murder were well known to Andrej and I know that the offence has had an impact upon the local community, some of whom knew all of the men involved.

“Although we have charged four men, our investigation is at an early stage and I would appeal to anyone with information about the people involved to come forward as it may assist our understanding of what led to this tragic outcome.”

Anyone with information is asked to email forcecontrolroom@lancashire.police.uk or call 101 quoting log 0259 of 5th November 2023.