The Court of Appeal in Rzeszów upheld the first-instance judgment, which found WW guilty of violating the bodily integrity of a prison officer with whom he worked. As reported by the prosecutor's office, the man, without her consent, “touched the injured party on the back of the head, hair area, back and neck and unfastened her bra”. The judgment is final.
The Court of Appeal in Rzeszów upheld the judgment issued by the District Court in Sanok on March 19, 2023.
The trial was secret, but the verdict was public. As Judge Artur Lipiński, spokesman for the District Court in Krosno, informed us at the time, “the court found WW guilty of violating the bodily integrity of a prison officer, private PS, on June 3, 2019, while she was performing her official duties by touching the injured party on the back of her head, hair area, back and neck without her consent, and unfastening her bra, which constitutes a crime under Article 222, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code, and for this, on the basis of this provision, applying Article 33, paragraphs 1 and 3, sentenced him to a penalty of one hundred daily fines, with one daily fine set at PLN 20 (PLN 2,000 in total – ed.).
§ 1. Whoever violates the bodily inviolability of a public official or a person called upon to assist him during or in connection with the performance of official duties shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years.
In addition – as judge Lipiński informed us – the court ruled that the accused should pay the injured party a compensation of six thousand złoty. He must also reimburse her for the costs of legal representation in the amount of almost 4.5 thousand złoty and cover the costs of the proceedings.
The judgment in this case is already final.
Three processes
The events that were the subject of the trial took place in June 2019 in one of the prisons in the south of Podkarpacie. The investigation into this case – at the request of the director of this unit – was initiated in mid-2019 by the District Prosecutor's Office in Sanok. It brought charges against the officer under Articles: 231 paragraph 1, 216 paragraph 1 and 217 paragraph 1 of the Penal Code. They concerned, respectively: abuse of power by a public official, insult and violation of bodily integrity.
The man did not admit to the crimes he was accused of during the investigation. On June 30, 2020, the indictment in this case was filed with the court, the trial began on November 27. However, it was interrupted for procedural reasons. Due to the pandemic COVID-19 There was a standstill in the courts, too much time had passed between hearings, so the trial had to be started from the beginning. Another one was interrupted by the illness of a judge, who did not return to adjudicating.
The next, third trial began on March 16, 2023. The verdict was announced after a year.
“He grabbed my hair with one hand and unfastened my bra with the other”
The former officer began work in one of the prisons in southern Podkarpacie in July 2018 as a full-time employee appointed as a prison officer. Her duties included working in direct contact with prisoners and giving their opinions.
The officer who allegedly committed irregularities against her was not a permanent employee of the company where she worked, but was only seconded there from another unit. The man and the woman worked in the same office, sharing a desk and computer.
As she reported in an interview with tvn24.pl, the man had been behaving inappropriately towards her from the very beginning of their work together. – He used diminutives towards me, commented on my appearance, told jokes about the subject or with sexual innuendo – she specified.
Such incidents, as our interviewee recalled, were “an everyday occurrence”, but she did not report them to her superiors.
The conduct, which was later the subject of a prosecutor’s investigation, allegedly occurred on Monday, June 3, 2019, while the officers were on joint duty.
This is how she related the incident in a conversation with us in March last year, before the third trial began: – He approached me, I was sitting at my desk, typing something on the computer. He grabbed my hair with one hand and unfastened my bra with the other. I moved away and screamed: “What are you doing?!” He sat down on a chair next to me and said he could help me fasten my bra, but “he has to use both hands” because he can't fasten it with one. I was shocked… Later he made some more stupid comments. He told me to stay with him until the end of his shift, that I would “sit on his lap” and “it will be fun”. He didn't react to my objections.
She told her colleagues about what had happened in the office. That same day, one of them informed the unit director about the incident. The next day, the officer also notified her superiors.
A week after the incident, she filed a written report about what had happened in the office. The director of the prison informed the prosecutor's office about the case. A special commission appointed by the District Inspectorate of the Prison Service in Rzeszów also began to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
The Commission confirmed the irregularities
In accordance with the regulations, a commission for relations in the service and work environment was established, which – as reported by the then press spokesman of the director of the District Inspectorate of the Prison Service in Rzeszów – after examining the report confirmed that the officer had “been acting in a manner inconsistent with the principles of service conduct and professional ethics”.
– In preparing the motion, the commission relied on the explanations provided by both parties. Based on the findings, it confirmed that the man's behavior violated the principles of professional ethics and official conduct – the spokesman said at the time.
The director of the facility where the officer was employed at the time, in accordance with the recommendation and procedures, initiated disciplinary proceedings against him, however – as the services reported at the time – “due to the impossibility of determining his guilt or innocence” he suspended them for the duration of the prosecutor's proceedings.
Point 3 of Article 97 of the Prison Service Act states that the service relationship of an officer expires, among other things, in the event of conviction by a final court judgment, if the execution of this penalty has not been conditionally suspended. In the event of confirmation of irregularities, the consequences for such a person depend on the nature of the act and may reach up to disciplinary dismissal from service.
At the request of the officer who allegedly committed the irregularities, the prosecutor's office also conducted an investigation against the officer who filed a report against him. It concerned the woman making false accusations, but after analyzing the case, this thread was closed.
She left her job
The officer finally resigned from her job and left the prison in 2022.
In February of this year, W. switched to retirement.
Main image source: Shutterstock (illustration photo)