Polish concert pianist guilty of sex assault – then f lees on Eurostar without passport
He exposes rules that let Europeans enter and leave UK using ID card
A CONCERT pianist awaiting trial for rape was able to flee home to Poland despite having his passport confiscated.
Jacek Serafin, who was yesterday jailed for 14 years in his absence, instead used an identity card to board a Eurostar train to Paris.
The 30-year-old had already been convicted of assault by penetration against his 22year-old victim.
He was on bail ahead of a trial for raping her in a practice room at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
The dock stood empty yesterday, with Serafin thought to be in Poland.
He is now the subject of a European arrest warrant. Eurostar confirmed yesterday that European Economic Area nationals can board trains bound to and from the Continent with a national identity card rather than a passport.
Home Office sources pinned the blame on Greater Manchester Police for apparently failing to seize all the documents Serafin might have used to travel abroad.
The 2014 attack took place after an alcohol-fuelled toga party at the college’s student union. Serafin spiked the drink of his victim, a fashion worker he had not met before.
She passed out after drinking two glasses of rosé and a glass of cider and woke to find Serafin having sex with her.
She was so incapacitated she could not tell him to stop. ‘ I felt like I was shouting inside but it wasn’t coming out,’ she told police.
A security guard came across them at 2am but Serafin persuaded him not to report the incident. The musician then dragged his victim to a taxi and back to his flat, carrying her over his shoulder. He then continued his attack until she had recovered enough to tell him to stop.
She later told police she felt like an inanimate object in ‘ some kind of lab experiment’. A toxicologist found she was three times the legal drink- drive limit.
‘Someone must have added something to her drink during the course of the night to cause her to lose consciousness and raise her alcohol levels to such an extent,’ said Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting. Last year Serafin – a graduate of Kracow music academy who was studying piano performance in Manchester – was found guilty of one count of assault by penetration against the woman, but cleared of five charges of rape. He was ordered to face a retrial on a sixth charge of rape after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
He was released on bail, with his passport confiscated. But at the start of his second trial at Manchester Crown Court last week it emerged that a few days earlier that he had fled. He has not been heard from since and the trial went ahead in his absence.
A jury found him guilty of rape on Thursday.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the victim said: ‘I worry I might never view my body as my own or feel comfortable in my own skin after the way in which I was degraded and intruded that night. Now I dress myself every morning trying not to provoke unwanted attention.’
Serafin was given nine years for rape and five years for the assault by penetration, with the sentences to run consecutively.
Judge Anthony Cross QC said he was convinced Serafin had used a date rape drug such as GHB to incapacitate his victim and followed tips from a book called The Game by American author Neil Strauss, which gives tips on how to pick up women.
Chapter headings include ‘Select a target’, ‘Isolate Your Victim’ and ‘Extract To A Seduction Location’.
The judge said: ‘ That is exactly what he did. He engaged with the victim and then he isolated her.’
He criticised the college, saying there should be an inquiry into staff recruitment.
He also slammed the security guard for ignoring Serafin’s panicked response to being discovered. The college said last night it had improved its recruitment policies.
‘I felt like I was shouting inside’