‘Putin lookalike’ found guilty of indecent assault on woman

Robert Leonczuk, 36, denied the charge, but was found guilty unanimously in the Royal Court after the Jurats had deliberated for about 30 minutes.

He put his head in his hands when the verdict was read out.

The incident happened at The Quay, St Peter Port, in the early hours of 31 July 2016.

Leonczuk, who was described by his victim as looking like Russian president Vladimir Putin, was arrested in a Town nightclub on 4 August and bailed to surrender to police on 19 October, but failed to do so.

Prosecuting advocate Rory Calderwood told the court that the defendant had served a day in prison in the UK for a battery offence. This had enabled UK police to determine who he was and led to him being brought back to Guernsey.

He had been in the island for about two weeks prior to the incident working on a decorating contract at a hotel.

His victim, now 29, was in Guernsey for the weekend to attend a wedding. Her evidence was given by way of a recorded ABE [achieving best evidence] interview she did at a London police station.

She described the man who indecently assaulted her as strong-looking, Eastern European, and resembling the Russian president.

The court was told how her boyfriend had been invited to the wedding, but did not go. The wedding was in the afternoon and was followed by a reception.

At about 11pm to 11.30pm the victim and several other guests, only one of whom she knew, got a minibus to Town and went to Folies. Inside, she became separated from the rest of the group.

She put her level of intoxication on a one to 10 ascending scale at five. She recalled a man ‘bugging her’ in the nightclub and said it was the defendant. She called her boyfriend to tell him this.

Her boyfriend told the court how he thought his girlfriend had sounded tipsy, but not incoherent. He heard her telling somebody to go away as she was on the phone.

The woman said she had sat down for a while when she left the club and had then gone to get a taxi. She became aware that the man was following her and he pushed her up against a shop window and indecently assaulted her.

She punched him twice and he began shouting before a taxi came along and she was able to get in it.

It took her to a friend’s house for which she had been given the address by text message.

The friend told the court how she had looked flustered when she arrived at his home and she told him about the incident.

They were driven to the police station where she made a complaint. The man said he would have put the woman’s level of intoxication on a one to 10 ascending scale at four and everything she was saying had made complete sense.

The defendant had given a different version of events. He said the woman had offered to go back to with him to the hotel where he was staying for £20. He gave her the money and took that to be for sex.

The two had walked together along the seafront then the woman told him that the price had gone up and she wanted another £50 which was when they argued and she punched him.

Advocate Calderwood told the court that the defendant’s story had been salacious and belied common sense.

Leonczuk was remanded in custody while a probation report is prepared. He will be sentenced next month.

The conviction means he is now subject to sexual offender notification requirements.