A former US air force pilot has been cleared of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl during her family holiday to London earlier this year.
Robert Prussak approached the girl after she became separated from her family near Harrods.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was standing outside the Knightsbridge department store when Prussak encountered her, a trial at Isleworth crown court heard.
Prussak claimed he had tried to help her find her parents because that is what he would have wanted someone to do for his daughters.
Prosecutors said he walked with her to his flat and gave her bitter-tasting water they said contained the antihistamine Benadryl, which left her tired. It was alleged that Prussak then took the girl to Hyde Park and sexually assaulted her.
The girl’s urine was found to include diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, but the court heard the substance was not detected in the glass Prussak gave her to drink from. There was also no DNA evidence of an assault.
Prussak was arrested later on the same day after he and the girl were spotted walking past the Israeli embassy by a Metropolitan police officer who had been told she was missing. Prussak was searched and said “I was just trying to help her out”, according to Sgt Edward Lucas.
Prussak denied all the charges against him and a jury found him not guilty on Tuesday. Prussak broke down in the dock as the judge, Edward Connell, told him that he was acquitted and was free to go.
During the trial, the court heard Prussak communicated with the girl, who did not speak English, using the Google Translate app. The prosecutor said they waited at the spot where they first met for about seven minutes, before moving off.
“My mind went straight to my own daughters, who are just a few years older than her, and I thought if my daughters were lost in a big city, I wouldn’t want them stuck out alone. I was reluctant to get involved,” Prussak told the court.
CCTV footage played to the jury showed the moment Prussak encountered the girl outside Harrods. He could be seen walking past her before stopping to speak to her. The footage showed them entering Chelsea Cloisters, where Prussak was staying, and heading into his apartment. They spent almost two hours inside, before leaving and walking through central London again, footage showed.
Prussak claimed to have taken the girl back to his flat because it had begun to rain and he wanted to find details online of emergency services. He said they eventually left the apartment to head to a fire station he had located.
In her closing statement, Prussak’s lawyer Catherine Donnelly questioned why her client would take the girl “into one of the busiest parks, in one of the most busy parts of the park” to sexually assault her. She also asked why he would wait until that point, when the effects of the Benadryl he allegedly drugged her with could be “wearing off”.
She added: “The flat was the place to do it, no one would have spotted him, [but] whilst there he turned on the television, gave her a glass of water and then did nothing.”
He was found not guilty of three counts of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13. He was also cleared of one count of kidnapping, one count of committing an offence of kidnapping with an intent to commit a sexual offence and one count of administering a substance with intent.
