A US Air Force pilot cried today as he was cleared of kidnapping a nine-year-old French girl outside Harrods before drugging and sexually assaulting her.
Robert Prussak, 57, broke down as ‘not guilty’ verdicts were read out to all six of the charges levelled against him at Isleworth Crown Court.
It was said previously that the defendant had approached the child outside Harrods after she became separated from her family on April 22, during a holiday in London.
The prosecution alleged he then led her back to his hotel apartment and drugged her – before taking her to Hyde Park and inappropriately touching her.
But Mr Prussak’s evidence was that he was ‘only trying to help’ the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and wanted to keep her ‘safe’.
Robert Prussak, 57, has been found not guilty of kidnapping, drugging and sexually assaulting a nine-year-old French girl outside Harrods
The father-of-two also told jurors that he decided to help when he spotted her because he would have wanted someone to help his own daughters.
He said: ‘When I spotted her, I thought she seemed lost because she was looking around – like she was searching for someone.
‘But then I thought maybe she was waiting for someone inside the shop and so I walked on.
‘But as I did, I thought, what if she is lost – and needs help? My mind went straight to my daughters who are a few years older than her.
‘I thought if my daughters were lost in a big city, I wouldn’t want them stuck there alone.’
The pilot spoke to the girl and she answered in another language so he started communicating with her using the Google Translate app, jurors heard.
Mr Prussak said he asked the girl how long it had been since she saw her parents and she raised three fingers, which he took to mean three minutes.
He claimed to have asked the nine-year-old if her parents were shopping, but said the girl told him her family had been heading to a museum, but was not sure which one.
Mr Prussak said he started walking with the girl towards a museum to ‘hopefully intercept the parents’ and searched on his phone for police stations and ‘surprisingly they were fairly far’.
Pressed on what his intention was, he said: ‘To keep her safe and reunite her with her parents.’
Mr Prussak said his goal was ‘keeping on track to a museum and keeping her safe and comfortable’.
It was said previously that the defendant had approached the child outside the department store after she became separated from her family on April 22, during a holiday in London
When asked why they did not go to the museum, he said it started to rain more heavily and they had not seen the girl’s parents.
The pilot said they went to his flat to search for a police station as his apartment was ‘very close by’ and he knew ‘how to get there quickly’.
He said: ‘I had found three police stations on Google Maps but there didn’t seem to be a direct route to any of them.
‘It started raining and the rain was dropping on my phone so because my apartment was near, I thought it would be best to go there.’
While there, he gave her a drink of water and let her watch TV.
Tests of the girl’s urine after she was found detected Diphenhydramine – the active ingredient in Benadryl – prompting an allegation that Mr Prussak had spiked the drink he gave her with the sedative.
But tests of the glasses in Mr Prussak’s apartment showed no evidence of Benadryl.
Mr Prussak said that the girl used the word ‘bite’, and a few discussions later he ‘figured’ she meant ‘bitter’, then tested his own water from the same bottle and said it tasted ‘normal’.
Mr Prussak said he and the girl left his apartment after he had found a nearby fire station on his iPad – where he intended to seek help.
They followed a Google Maps route which took them through Hyde Park – and later bumped into police officers outside the Israeli Embassy.
Mr Prussak had insisted to jurors: ‘I did not touch [the girl] in the way she described. I’m not sure why she would say that.’
Asked by his barrister whether he would have done things differently now, he admitted: ‘In hindsight, knowing now that her parents were in Harrods, staying at that spot or going inside would have been the best solution.
‘But at that point I was told they weren’t shopping so I thought I had to find the parents or the police.’
The father-of-two also told jurors that he decided to help when he spotted her because he would have wanted someone to help his own daughters
Catherine Donnelly, defending, put to him the allegation that he put Benadryl in the water, and asked him if he did that, he responded ‘no’.
She then asked: ‘The allegation is you did that to put her to sleep or stupefy her or something of that nature, did you do that?’
Mr Prussak responded: ‘No.’
Mr Donnelly asked her client why he did not call the police.
Mr Prussak said: ‘I absolutely regret not calling the police sooner. I had never done it before and I didn’t know what response I would get.
‘I was scared they would send in the cavalry and the ambulances and everything. I thought I could get there more efficiently.’
The jury saw CCTV footage of the moment Mr Prussak encountered the girl outside Harrods.
The pilot was seen walking past the girl before stopping to speak to her. They then communicated for a period using his phone before walking away together.
The girl’s father, who spoke on a videolink from France, told jurors that Harrods staff checked the department store’s CCTV after he told them their daughter was missing.
When police arrived, the girl’s parents handed them a photo of their daughter to help the search.
The father said an officer then showed him a photo of his daughter walking away with an unknown man, at which point he began to believe she had been abducted.
‘At first, when the minutes were passing by, I thought she was lost, but when I saw the picture of the man I thought she could have been abducted,’ he said.
The girl’s mother added: ‘I was out of words, I could not believe it.
‘It was very stressful, we were in the lounges of Harrods upstairs. I was very stressed, but I tried to keep calm for the children.’
The court heard that the girl became lost while visiting the department store with her family (file image)
Jurors found the pilot not guilty of all counts he had been charged with: kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offence, administering a substance with intent, and three counts of sexual assault.
The court heard that Mr Prussak was a pilot for the US Airforce for 18-and-a-half years.
He then became a pilot for Walmart before later switching to work as a ‘pilot for hire’ to allow him to visit his daughters more following his divorce from his wife.
He was in London in April for a job interview.
After the verdicts were read out, Judge Edward Connell said: ‘He is discharged.’
