A former U.S. Air Force pilot has been acquitted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl during a family trip to London earlier this year.
Robert Prusak approached a young girl who had been separated from her family near Harrods.
The trial at Isleworth Crown Court heard the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was standing outside Knightsbridge department store when Prusak encountered her.
Prusak claimed he tried to help find her parents because he wanted someone to do that for his daughters.
Prosecutors said he walked with her to her apartment and made her drink bitter water that allegedly contained the antihistamine drug Benadryl, which made her tired. Prusak then allegedly took the girl to Hyde Park and sexually assaulted her.
The girl’s urine was found to contain diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, but the court heard the substance was not found in the glass Prusak gave her. There was also no DNA evidence of the assault.
Prusak was spotted walking in front of the Israeli embassy with the girl later that day by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department police officers, and was arrested after receiving information that the girl was missing. Detective Sergeant Edward Lucas said Prusak was searched and told police: “I was just trying to help her.”
Prusak denies all charges against him, and a jury returned a not guilty verdict on Tuesday. Prusak broke down in tears in the dock after Judge Edward Connell told him he was free to go home without charges.
During the trial, the court heard Prusak used the Google Translate app to communicate with the girl, who did not speak English. Prosecutors said the two waited at the location where they first met for about seven minutes before leaving.
“My thoughts were always about my daughters, who were a few years older than her. If they got lost in the big city, I didn’t want them to be left alone. There was a reluctance to get involved,” Prusak told the court.
CCTV footage played to the jury showed the moment Mr Prusak encountered the girl outside Harrods. I saw him walk past her and then stop and talk to her. The footage showed them entering the Chelsea Cloisters, where Mr Prusak was staying, and heading to his flat. According to the footage, they spent about two hours indoors before heading outside to walk through central London again.
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Prusak claimed he took the girl back to his apartment because it started raining and he wanted to look up details for emergency services online. He said they eventually left the apartment and headed to a fire station where he found them.
In her closing statement, Prusak’s attorney, Catherine Donnelly, asked why her client took the girl to “one of the busiest parks, one of the busiest parts of the park” and sexually assaulted her. He questioned whether he had added it. She also asked why he waited until that point when the effects of the Benadryl he allegedly drugged her with could “wear off.”
She added: “The apartment was the place to do it. No one would have noticed him.[But]there he just turned on the TV, gave her a glass of water and did nothing after that.” “I didn’t,” he added.
He was acquitted of three counts of sexual assault of a child under 13. He was also acquitted of one count of kidnapping, one count of kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offense, and one count of committing a sexual offense. Administering a substance with intent.
