Briton hacked to death in Zimbabwe

Mr Toloczko (right) had lived in Zimbabwe for years

A British lecturer who was hacked to death has been found in a shallow grave at his home in Zimbabwe.

Jerzy Toloczko, 51, from Leicester, was brutally attacked by two men in Ilanda, near Bulawayo.

Police have arrested his gardener and another man, both in their 20s, as suspects.

The two attackers broke into Mr Toloczko's house and stole a pair of shoes, a pair of trousers, a shirt, a wallet and a mobile phone, a police spokesman said.

Shallow grave

Mr Toloczko, known as Jed, was an adventurer who had spent years in Africa, his family said.

Qualified as a chartered surveyor and lawyer, he had just returned to Zimbabwe after spending two months with his mother in Leicester.

The two men attacked him as he returned home on Wednesday evening last week, the police spokesman said.

They allegedly repeatedly hit him with an axe, then wrapped his body in a blanket and buried him in an already prepared shallow grave in the yard.

His brother, Roman, 49, who lives in Oadby, Leicester, said: "He was very much an adventurer in all of his professional working life."

"He was a carefree bachelor that thoroughly enjoyed life and the company of friends all over the world."

He said his mother, janina, 79, who was born in Poland and went to Zimbabwe, known then as Rhodesia, during the war, was inconsolable.

Mr Toloczko's family had been warned against travelling to Zimbabwe following the death, because of the political situation.

Arrangements were being made by staff at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, where he worked, to fly his body home.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said investigations were still being carried out into the death and she could give no further details.