Former US Air Force pilot not guilty of kidnapping, drugging and assaulting girl, 9, outside Harrods

A former pilot has been found not guilty of kidnapping, drugging and a nine-year-old girl outside .

Robert Prussak, 57, approached the girl after she became separated from her family during a trip from France on April 22.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was standing outside Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London, a trial at Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Mr Prussak then walked with her to his flat and was accused of giving her bitter-tasting water allegedly containing the antihistamine Benadryl, which left her tired, the court was told.

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It was alleged that the pilot, of no fixed address, then took the girl to Hyde Park and sexually assaulted her.

Mr Prussak was arrested later on the same day after he and the girl were spotted walking past the embassy by a Metropolitan Police officer who had been informed she was missing.

He was searched and said, “I was just trying to help her out”, according to Sergeant Edward Lucas.

Mr Prussak denied all the charges against him and a jury found him not guilty on Tuesday.

Giving evidence last Friday, he told the court he was walking past Harrods when he saw the girl, and thought she might need help as she appeared to be "looking around, searching". He told the jury: "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 spoke to the girl and she answered in another language so he started communicating with her using the Translate app, he said. He said he asked if her family was going shopping "to see if we could rush in there (Harrods), her answer was no, and then I said, 'well then, where were you going?' She wrote down something in translation, muse".

Prussak said he came to understand that meant "museum", but added she did not know which one. Asked why he did not stay with the girl outside Harrods, he said: "In honesty, knowing everything I know now, that they were inside Harrods, staying there or going inside would've been the best solution."

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". He said his intention was "to get her back with her parents". The accused said his goal was "keeping on track to a museum and keeping her safe and comfortable".

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 his apartment was "very close by" and he knew "how to get there quickly".

He said he "absolutely regrets" not calling the police sooner. And he did not call as he did not know "what response I would get" and was afraid "they'd send the cavalry and ambulance and everything".

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

He said through the translation, 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".

Judge Edward Connell told Mr Prussak, who broke down in the dock as he was acquitted, that he was free to go.

Jurors had asked if there was any DNA evidence of the sexual assault just over an hour after they started deliberating on Monday, and the judge said there was not.

Mr Prussak 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.