A Polish national is facing deportation from the UK after being jailed for trying to abduct a four-year-old boy in a public car park. Andrzej Palosz claimed he wanted to see how the child’s mother would react to her son being taken away by a “random stranger” after watching child snatcher videos on YouTube.
His bizarre abduction bid was foiled by a Good Samaritan who went to the mum’s aid and distracted the drunken workman long enough for the child’s mother to get into her car and drive her two children to safety. Livingston Sheriff Court heard the woman had been left “devastated and traumatised” by the incident and now feared going out with her children in case the same thing happened again.
Palosz, 48, pleaded guilty to attempting to abduct the boy in a public car park at the junction of Menzies Road and Gardners Lane in Bathgate, West Lothian, on 7 May this year. The boy’s mum had collected her two children from Bathgate Early Years Centre at around midday when she saw Palosz speaking to her son before leading him away by the hand.
She grabbed the boy from his grasp and took the youngster to her car where she began buckling both of her children into their car seats. Palosz came up behind her and started trying to pull her son out of the vehicle but although she managed to shut the car door the accused began pulling at the handle.
When she tried to get into her car he stood in her way blocking her path and shouting: “Open the door.” The mum began recording him on her mobile phone because she feared for her own safety and that of her children, who were by this time crying inside the car.
A witness who saw what was happening came over and intervened, distracting Palosz long enough for the woman to get into her car and drive off, contacting the police as she left. Officers who spoke to her found her to be “extremely shaken and frightened” by the experience.
They arrested Palosz – who was sitting on steps in the car park clutching a half drunk bottle of whisky – at around 3:40pm. Lesley Cunningham, defending, said Palosz had watched YouTube videos about “staged abductions” in which an individual would attempt to take a child from an unsuspecting member of the public to see how they reacted.
She claimed: “He tells me this was not an incident which was in any way premeditated. He tells me it was almost an opportunistic event in that he spotted the family and this idea came to him. In the video he presents as completely shambolic and appears entirely under the influence of alcohol – that’s not to detract from what would have been a horrific incident for the family and members of the public who witnessed it.”
She added: “He wishes to apologise to the family and fully recognises the trauma that he will have caused everyone. That’s something he’ll have to live with.” She said the accused was homeless before his arrest and had been sleeping at his place of work. He had been drinking heavily in the months leading up to the offence.
Jailing Palosz, Sheriff Susan Craig said she had considered remitting the case to the High Court for a longer sentence because of the seriousness of the offence. She told him: “The narration is horrific. This is not a situation where you take the child’s hand and let go. You spoke to the child, you took the child’s hand and you led the child away.
“It was only because the mother intervened – which must have been terrifying for her – that she was able to get the child back from you.” She went on: “She placed the child and her other child in the car as a place of safety but you didn’t turn round and walk the other way.
“You didn’t realise that that had already gone far enough, instead you repeatedly tried to get into the car and continued trying to remove the child. It’s only because of the fortunate involvement of a third party that she was able to get into the car and drive away.”
Sheriff Craig said she had read the victim impact statement in which the woman told how she was now fearful to go out because he was a random stranger who had tried to take her child from her. She sentenced him to 40 months in prison, backdated to 5 May when he was first remanded in custody.
She also made him subject to a 12 month supervised release order to ensure that he is monitored by social workers to protect the public. Palosz, who moved from Poland to Scotland in 2016, will be sent back to his home country by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper when he has completed his prison sentence. She has a legal duty to deport non-British nationals who are sentenced to at least 12 months in prison for a criminal offence in the UK.
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