Judge: not a word of truth in sex attacker’s testimony
SEX attacker Robert Leonczuk’s denial of indecently assaulting a woman had been a character assassination of her in court, a Royal Court judge told him.
Judge Russell Finch said the court considered there had not been a word of truth in his defence argument and was also wholly unimpressed by his continued denial, which flew in the face of compelling evidence against him.
Leonczuk, who was unanimously found guilty of indecent assault in April, was jailed for four years, with a further two months for breaching his bail conditions.
The court will recommend to the Lt-Governor that he order the defendant’s deportation.
In her victim’s impact statement, the woman said the incident, including Leonczuk’s denial at trial, has caused her stress which she had not experienced before.
Leonczuk carried out the attack on the UK woman when he came to Guernsey for a wedding three years ago.
He claimed that the woman had offered him sex for a small amount of money and had then put the price up.
The incident happened at The Quay, St Peter Port, in July 2016.
The two had met in Folies that evening. The woman was not interested in the defendant and had been looking for a taxi.
The defendant, who was working in the island on a decorating contract at hotel, was identified later by CCTV.
About a week after the incident, the manager of Folies contacted police to say the defendant was back in the club so police went to arrest him.
Leonczuk was bailed to return to the police station on 19 October that year but he failed to attend. On 25 March 2018, he was arrested in the UK under a Royal Court warrant.
While in custody, he assaulted a female officer, for which he was sentenced to one day in prison for an offence of battery, which delayed him being brought back to Guernsey.
He was brought back in September last year and has been in custody ever since.
At the sentencing hearing, prosecuting advocate Rory Calderwood read the woman’s victim impact statement to the court.
She said there had been a lot of ‘internal dialogue’ as she had drunk alcohol and gone out without taking care of herself. At first she had not been able to tell her parents about it.
Guernsey Police had provided regular updates over the past three years and while she was pleased that the case was being pursued, it meant she had had to relive the experience many times.
It had impacted on her ability to focus on her work and the incident had followed her to a new life in a new country.
Appearing in court had been scary and had caused a new kind of stress that she had never experienced before.
‘I now have a better understanding and empathy as to why people do not report things,’ she said.
Leonczuk admitted the bail breach.
Advocate Samuel Steel said there was little he could say with regards to the indecent assault as his client maintained his innocence.
It was not a prolonged or sustained incident and there was no abduction. His client had met the woman that night when she was drunk and he had not plied her with alcohol.
The bail breach had caused delay and distress to the victim but it was not the case that a trial had had to be aborted and rearranged.
He would not oppose deportation as he had no intention of returning to Guernsey.
Judge Finch said the defendant’s story had been implausible and highly unlikely. He claimed the woman had offered him sexual services and that she had physically assaulted him and nothing more.
‘The court emphatically rejected that,’ said Judge Finch. The woman had also had to endure cross-examination on it.
The defendant could be treated as a man of previously good character as the only other matter on his record post-dated the offence but that was about all that could be said in his favour, apart from the guilty plea to the bail breach.
