Man accused of kidnapping girl outside Harrods claims he wanted to ‘keep her safe’ – The Irish News

A man accused of kidnapping, drugging and sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl said his intention was to keep her “safe” and “return her to her parents”, a court has heard.

American pilot Robert Prussak contacted the girl in London after she was separated from her family while traveling from France on April 22 this year, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

She was standing outside Harrods department store in Knightsbridge and Prussak allegedly accompanied the girl to his apartment and gave her bitter water, which made her feel tired.

The 57-year-old man of no fixed address then allegedly took her to a nearby park where he sexually assaulted her.

On Friday, Prussak told the court that he was walking past Harrods when he saw the girl and thought she might need help because it looked like she was “looking around and searching.”

He told the jury: “I immediately thought of my own daughters, who are only a few years older than her, and I thought that if my daughters were lost in a big city, I wouldn’t want them to be left alone.

“I didn’t want to get involved.”

Prussak spoke to the girl and she responded in a different language, so he started communicating with her using the Google Translate app, he said.

He said he asked if her family was going shopping “to see if we could rush there (Harrods), she said no, and then I asked, ‘Well, where are you going?’ She wrote something down in translation, muse.”

Prussak stated that she understood it to mean “museum”, but added that she did not know which.

When asked why he didn’t stay with the girl outside Harrods, he replied: “Honestly, knowing everything I know now that they were at Harrods, staying there or going inside would have been the best option.”

Prussak said he started walking with the girl toward the museum to “hopefully intercept the parents,” then began searching his phone for police stations, which “surprisingly, were quite far away.”

He said his intention was to “bring her back to her parents.”

The defendant said his goal was to “keep her on track to the museum and ensure her safety and comfort.”

When asked why they didn’t go to the museum, he replied that it started raining harder and they didn’t see the girl’s parents. He said his apartment was “very close” and he knew “how to get there quickly.”

He said he “totally regrets” not calling the police sooner. And he didn’t call because he didn’t know “what answer I would get” and he was afraid that “they would send cavalry, an ambulance and everything.”

Prussak decided to take the girl back to his apartment and said he searched the Internet for information about emergency services, then offered her water and she drank two glasses, one from the kitchen tap and the other from a bottle.

He said the girl used the word “bite” in translation, and a few discussions later he “guessed” she meant “bitter,” after which he tested his own water from the same bottle and found it tasted “normal.”

Catherine Donnelly, defending, accused him of throwing Benadryl into the water and asked if he had done it, he replied no.

She asked: “The allegation is that you did it to sedate her or make her stupid or something like that. Did you do it?”

Prussak replied, “No.”

He was asked if he knew how long they had been in his apartment. He said that after he left, he thought it had been “about an hour” but later found out it had been two hours, which “surprised” him.

Prussak told the jury that he left his apartment with his girlfriend intending to find the fire station and missed a turn, so the app guided him through the park.

He said he asked two people in the park if they had seen any police, and at one point he sat on a bench because he “wasn’t sure if we were on the right track to where we needed to go.”

The girl looked “a little tired and groggy.” He said he was keeping an eye on her to make sure she was nearby. He got up to leave, gave her the “let’s go” sign, and then said, “I’m sorry.” it’s been taking so long, we’re almost there” and “I gently grabbed the left side of her face.”

The allegation brought to him by Mrs. Donnelly is that he took her to a wooded or more private place and touched her stomach under her clothes, Prussak said: “I never touched her in any way other than what I have always described,” adding that “there is no hidden private areas, there were people everywhere.”

Mrs Donnelly stated that another allegation was that he pulled the front of her jeans to look inside and the third was that he kissed her on both cheeks and lips, to which he replied in response to both allegations: “I didn’t do that “.

Prosecutor Nneka Akudolu KC asked Prussak if he was sexually attracted to children, to which he replied “no”.

Ms Akudolu explained to him that he had taken the girl from Harrods to commit a sexual assault, to which he replied: “That’s not true.”

The court had previously heard that the girl was taken to hospital, where she was reunited with her family and a urine sample was taken from her.

The sample contained diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, an antihistamine that usually causes drowsiness, the court heard.

Ms Akudolu, reading the agreed facts on Friday, stated that glasses containing clear liquid were taken from the kitchen and the liquid was tested for Benadryl and all results were negative.

Prussak denies three counts of sexual assault on a child under the age of 13. He also denies one count of kidnapping, one count of committing a criminal offense of kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offense and one count of administering a substance with intent.

The process continues.