A former US Air Force pilot is facing charges overseas that he kidnapped, drugged and sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl after she got separated from her family in front of luxe London department store, according to reports.
Robert Prussak, 57, allegedly carried out the disturbing crimes after spotting the lost child outside Harrods last April in a scenario that is “every parent’s worst nightmare,” a court was told this week, The Times of London reported.
The American was seen on surveillance camera approaching the girl, whose family was visiting the country from France, and telling her he was going to help her find her parents.
But instead, the young girl was taken to his apartment, where she was allegedly given “antihistamine with marked sedative effects” and then sexually assaulted in a park, UK prosecutors said, the outlet reported.
“[The girl] said that he then took her to a park where she saw joggers,” Nneka Akudolu KC reportedly said on Monday during the start of Prussak’s trial.
“He took her to a corner of the park and slid his hand underneath her hoodie, his hand landing on her chest and belly.”
The girl claimed he also looked down her pants and kissed her on the cheek and lips, the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, the girl’s parents and Harrods’ security frantically searched for the youngster, eventually pinpointing footage of her being led away by a man.
Following the sickening assault, Prussak allegedly told the victim to knock on a door and tell those inside she was lost, but as he fled the scene, she went back to him.
Metropolitan Police officers outside the Israeli Embassy spotted the pair and arrested Prussak.
“I remember there were times when I even saw him [the father] crying,” Harrods worker Khadija Errady told the court on Tuesday, per the Times of London.
“The mother was composed because she didn’t want to make her other children more stressed.”
Prussak is facing charges of kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to commit sexual offense, administering a substance with intent and three counts of sexually assaulting a child under 13.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Prussak, who is from California, spent about 17 years in the Air Force before leaving at the end of 2014, according to a LinkedIn profile with the same name.
The Post has sought comment from the Air Force.