Judge’s fury as police fail to hand over vital CCTV in another sex case fiasco
‘Combination of errors’
A jUDGE savaged police and prosecutors yesterday for failing to hand over CCTV evidence that helped clear a businessman of sex assault.
Valentin Krzyzyk, 27, endured a five-day trial accused of grabbing a woman’s bottom in a nightclub and calling her a ‘table whore’.
But his lawyers were not shown footage of the incident at Cirque Le Soir in London, where he spent £6,000 on Dom Perignon champagne.
The judge said a ‘combination of errors’ meant the film, showing the woman continuing to drink with friends after the alleged attack, was released to the defence team only on the first day of trial. His lawyers had previously been informed by the officer in the case that the footage held no interest.
The judge’s comments come as the Metropolitan Police reviews dozens of sex cases after two rape trials collapsed and another ended in acquittal because police and prosecutors failed to disclose key evidence.
The woman in Mr Krzyzyk’s trial at Southwark Crown Court last month tearfully gave evidence claiming she had been hysterical and was crying after being groped. But he was acquitted by a jury in just three-and-ahalf hours after the CCTV undermined her account.
Recorder Michael BromleyMartin QC urged the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure such ‘a failure never occurs again’, especially with evidence capable of helping a defendant. Mr Krzyzyk, who lives near Buckingham Palace, had been partying with friends at the club in December 2016 when he was said to have lifted the complainant’s skirt before slapping her hard on the buttocks and groping her. He denied making contact and insisted he merely shooed the woman away after she helped herself to the table’s drinks.
When the CPS and police failed to call any witnesses to give evidence on the first day of trial, Mr Krzyzyk’s barrister Narita Bahra made a fresh request for the CCTV footage.
It was referred to in court during an earlier hearing and should have been served on the defence automatically. But neither Mr Krzyzyk nor his lawyer had seen it despite repeated demands.
After being told there was nothing relevant on the disk, Miss Bahra spent the night trawling through five hours of footage before finding evidence that contradicted the complainant’s account. The film showed her appearing to carry on drinking and nonchalantly flicking her hair after the alleged attack. The jury reached a majority verdict clearing Mr Krzyzyk of a single count of sexual assault.
The judge ordered an inquiry into why no witnesses were available on the first day and into the ‘reprehensible’ late service of the footage. He awarded Mr Krzyzyk £4,800 in costs, adding: ‘This is not a case of the failure of disclosure which has been in other recent cases the subject of publicity.’
He said the evidence was known about but ‘was not produced to the defence despite many requests for its production’.
Speaking outside court, Miss Bahra said: ‘In all sex offences it is usually one person’s word against the other’s.
‘But the independent evidence in this case totally exonerated the defendant and completely supported his defence.
‘But for this, I don’t think the jury would have believed him.’