US Air Force pilot Robert Prussak was found not guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old French girl outside Harrods department store in London.
The 57-year-old pilot broke down in tears as the verdicts were read out at Isleworth Crown Court, Daily Mail reported.
The prosecution had alleged that Prussak had approached the child after she became separated from her family, led her back to his hotel apartment, drugged her, and then took her to Hyde Park where he inappropriately touched her.
Prussak, however, maintained that he was “only trying to help” the lost girl and wanted to keep her “safe.”
Prussak claimed he spotted the girl looking lost outside Harrods and decided to assist her, as he would have wanted someone to help his own daughters if they were in a similar situation.
He said he communicated with the girl using a translation app and tried to reunite her with her family, first by walking towards a museum and then going to his nearby apartment to search for nearby police stations on his phone.
“When I spotted her, I thought she seemed lost because she was looking around – like she was searching for someone,” the pilot said.
“…I thought if my daughters were lost in a big city, I wouldn’t want them stuck there alone.”
The girl’s family had reported her missing, and Harrods staff checked the store’s CCTV footage, which showed the girl walking away with an unknown man.
“But then I thought maybe she was waiting for someone inside the shop and so I walked on,” Prussak, recounting the moment in question.
The footage led the girl’s father to believe she had been abducted. The girl’s mother recounted that she was “out of words” and “could not believe” what she had seen.
“It was very stressful, we were in the lounges of Harrods upstairs,” she continued. “ I was very stressed, but I tried to keep calm for the children.”
However, Prussak maintained that he did not touch the girl in the way she described and that he did not put any sedatives in the water he gave her.
Jurors ultimately found Prussak not guilty of all charges, including kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offense, administering a substance with intent and three counts of sexual assault.
The court heard that Prussak had been a pilot for the US Air Force for 18-and-a-half years before becoming a pilot for Walmart and then a “pilot for hire” to allow him to visit his daughters more following his divorce.
“I absolutely regret not calling the police sooner. I had never done it before and I didn’t know what response I would get,” Prussak stated, as outlined by Daily Mail.
“I was scared they would send in the cavalry and the ambulances and everything.”
“I thought I could get there more efficiently,” he continued.
Daily Mail further noted that after the verdicts were read aloud, Judge Edward Connell stated that Prussak “is discharged.”
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Author: Jordyn M.
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