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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think this is an insane verdict

297 replies

DancingNotDrowning · 29/10/2024 13:33

pilot who takes lost girl back to his hotel not guilty of kidnap and assault.

unbelievable verdict, poor girl.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly2xv1yx83o.amp

OP posts:
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Annonamon · 29/10/2024 13:36

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Nespressso · 29/10/2024 13:43

Hmmmm why on earth would he take her back to his hotel. Surely you would take the child straight to a police station or similar?

MimiSunshine · 29/10/2024 13:47

I can only imagine that the jury felt they had to go with not guilty because there wasn’t any physical evidence found in his hotel of the drug that was found in her system so the allegations couldn’t be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

however I think it’s a travesty. Why would you take a child from outside a busy shop to go back to your apartment to then look for where to get help?
it defies logic, you’d as a minimum just stand with her or go and find someone in the shop and ask them to call the police or put an announcement out.

He says he doesn’t know why she’s claiming he assaulted her but I believe that poor girl. I hope she is well supported.

BMW6 · 29/10/2024 13:48

Reasonable doubt

Squirrelz5 · 29/10/2024 13:48

Very odd case. Nobody in their right mind would think the best course or action was to take a lost child to their hotel. You stay put and call the police, surely.

PortobelloToad · 29/10/2024 13:55

I read another article that had his defence and things he’d said in court. It all just sounds like a litany of excuses as to why he didn’t do the right thing and call the police/go to a police station etc.

The accused said his goal was 'keeping on track to a museum and keeping her safe and comfortable'.
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.
He 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.'

Asked by his barrister whether he would have done things differently now, Prussak admitted: 'In hindsight, knowing now that her parents were in Harrods, staying at that spot or going inside would have been the best solution.

Defence barrister Catherine Donnelly asked her client why he did not call the police.
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.'
He was then asked if he was aware how long they had been at his apartment. He said after he left he thought it was 'about an hour', but later found out it was two hours, which 'surprised' him.
The court previously heard the girl was later taken to hospital, where she was reunited with her family, and a urine sample was collected from her.
The sample contained diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, an antihistamine which typically causes drowsiness, the court heard.

Completelyjo · 29/10/2024 13:57

DancingNotDrowning · 29/10/2024 13:33

pilot who takes lost girl back to his hotel not guilty of kidnap and assault.

unbelievable verdict, poor girl.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly2xv1yx83o.amp

There is literally no information or details in that article so how can you conclude that the verdict was insane?

PhoebeFeels · 29/10/2024 14:11

It seems as if the prosecution team might have been GCSE kids on work experience.

DancingNotDrowning · 29/10/2024 17:06

@Completelyjo I read the details in another article which I can’t share because it’s behind a paywall.

@PortobelloToad has provided some more colour should you be interested in engaging in the subject rather than making mindless criticisms

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DancingNotDrowning · 29/10/2024 17:13

It is unfathomable to me that a jury of 12 would conclude that a man who took a lost 8 year old to his hotel room wasn’t acting nefariously.

Surely in this day and age no man with good intentions would behave in this manner? Apart from the fact his behaviour makes no rationale sense (why not return the child to the store/liaise with one of the doormen; call 999; flag down a police officer/car, ask a passerby for assistance) he must have known that if acted innocently he was putting himself in an extraordinarily vulnerable position.

Even walking her directly to a police station/handing her to the hotel receptionist etc etc would have made more sense than taking her to his room?!

I feel sick for that poor girl

OP posts:
JLou08 · 29/10/2024 17:14

How could anyone believe a man would just hang out in his apartment with a lost 9 year old girl for 2 hours rather than call the police or approach someone in the shop to assist. Poor child will grow feeling like she wasn't believed and there will likely be more victims.

Stichintime · 29/10/2024 17:18

I think he was found not guilty because there just wasn't the physical evidence to make a decision 'beyond reasonable doubt', not because anyone believed him.

ComtesseDeSpair · 29/10/2024 17:19

I presume it would also have hinged on what evidence the child herself did or didn’t give in her own statement about what happened. Which seems to be that he gave her water but she didn’t feel tired until after they’d left the apartment, and that nothing happened in the apartment in terms of a sexual assault.

His testimony is pretty peculiar but there’s a lot of reasonable doubt in the events.

anonsurvivor · 29/10/2024 17:24

I just cannot believe that a man would take a lost child back to his hotel room unless he had bad intentions. It is just appalling.

Hollowgast · 29/10/2024 17:27

Diphenhydramine is an ingredient in US Benadryl. In the UK the active ingredient is acrivastine and it is a non-drowsy anti-histamine.

Diphenhydramine is in stuff like Nytol, so it's not something you can accidentally give.

RadioBamboo · 29/10/2024 17:33

YABU. Twelve jurors heard all the evidence and acquitted him. You've just read a news article about it.

Wouldbedriver · 29/10/2024 17:36

It’s a bizarre case. Naturally it makes you think of Sarah Everard. But then the verdict suggests it was something else. Maybe the guy has dementia or something.

You’d think they will have gone through his background with a fine tooth comb.

One of the articles said it was a flat in Chelsea Cloisters. So if he didn’t own it then it’ll have been a small flat he’s rented for a short while. Not a hotel though.

Drake88 · 29/10/2024 17:37

Online is his divorce hearing IF it is the same man. Same name, California, 2 kids

Guilty of domestic violence, guilty of anal rape.

Icedbear · 29/10/2024 17:38

There must be loads the jury heard that we don't know.

And if there was reasonable doubt...

Icedbear · 29/10/2024 17:44

MimiSunshine · 29/10/2024 13:47

I can only imagine that the jury felt they had to go with not guilty because there wasn’t any physical evidence found in his hotel of the drug that was found in her system so the allegations couldn’t be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

however I think it’s a travesty. Why would you take a child from outside a busy shop to go back to your apartment to then look for where to get help?
it defies logic, you’d as a minimum just stand with her or go and find someone in the shop and ask them to call the police or put an announcement out.

He says he doesn’t know why she’s claiming he assaulted her but I believe that poor girl. I hope she is well supported.

You think it's a travesty that there is an aquital when there's reasonable doubt?

DancingNotDrowning · 29/10/2024 17:46

The girl made a statement that she had been abused.

That statement is supported I would argue by the weirdest reaction to finding a lost child I’ve ever heard of.

and again supported by the drugs in her system.

I’d say we’ve reached the point that the only way to secure a sexual assault conviction is if they actually film themselves doing it. But several recent cases suggest that might not be enough.

i’m so heartsick for our girls.

OP posts:
Icedbear · 29/10/2024 17:47

JLou08 · 29/10/2024 17:14

How could anyone believe a man would just hang out in his apartment with a lost 9 year old girl for 2 hours rather than call the police or approach someone in the shop to assist. Poor child will grow feeling like she wasn't believed and there will likely be more victims.

Thankfully our legal system requires proof that he was guilty, not some feeling that he must have done it.

If the girl was failed it was by the prosecution who didn't bring a strong enough case, not the jury or the system.

MeAgainAndAgain · 29/10/2024 17:53

Wouldbedriver · 29/10/2024 17:36

It’s a bizarre case. Naturally it makes you think of Sarah Everard. But then the verdict suggests it was something else. Maybe the guy has dementia or something.

You’d think they will have gone through his background with a fine tooth comb.

One of the articles said it was a flat in Chelsea Cloisters. So if he didn’t own it then it’ll have been a small flat he’s rented for a short while. Not a hotel though.

And he was described as ‘no fixed abode’. How come? There is so so much about this case I cannot understand.

MeAgainAndAgain · 29/10/2024 17:54

Drake88 · 29/10/2024 17:37

Online is his divorce hearing IF it is the same man. Same name, California, 2 kids

Guilty of domestic violence, guilty of anal rape.

How did you find that?

DanielaDressen · 29/10/2024 17:55

I get there might have been no evidence of the drug in his flat but it was in her body. Surely it’s not beyond reasonable doubt that he administered it seeing as he was with her. Is he saying her parents drugged her? Or a random hypothetical person who’s never been caught?