This is not politics. This is a story about a man who should be judged fairly, says Magda N., who accuses Jacek Kurski's son of sexual harassment. He allegedly raped her for the first time when she was nine years old. Then again. The case was brought to the prosecutor's office, but under the Law and Justice party it was discontinued twice.
– This is a story about a child who was raped many times and who struggles with very difficult problems in adult life – says Ms. Magda. – It wasn't a one-off situation, it happened repeatedly for several years. It started before I was 10 years old, he adds.
The trauma of those events came back during therapy. For years, Mrs. Magda tried not to think about it and forget about it. – Denial, a mechanism of repression, a mechanism of dissociation, cutting oneself off from these emotions – indicates Dr. Aleksandra Lewandowska, national consultant in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry.
“It has nothing to do with politics”
Only years later was she able to seek justice, but the prosecutor's office did not believe her and discontinued the investigation twice. Then Magda N. told her story in “Gazeta Wyborcza” and revealed that Zdzisław K., the son of Law and Justice politician Jacek Kurski, had abused her.
– This is not a story about any name. This is a story about a man who should be judged fairly. I want to make it clear: this is not politics and has nothing to do with politics, emphasizes Ms. Magda.
This sense of injustice and impunity of the perpetrator makes the process of healing from the trauma of rape much more difficult. – If there is a belief that I was left alone with this, that no one believed me, that a person who did not commit such harm bears no consequences, then we have a significantly higher risk of developing various mental disorders, a significantly higher risk of suicidal behavior – warns Aleksandra Lewandowska.
This is another element of this story – about the justice system, which should have intervened, but completely failed Magda. “Gazeta Wyborcza” described how, when Zbigniew Ziobro was in charge of the prosecutor's office, the case was “covered up” because it concerned the son of a prominent PiS politician and the head of the regime's television.
– Instead of prosecuting the person accused of these acts, the prosecutor's office did everything to avoid justice – commented Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Adam Bodnar established a special team
The Minister of Justice appointed a team in the National Prosecutor's Office to assess which investigations from Ziobro's times were discontinued on political orders because they protected PiS politicians.
The Gdańsk prosecutor's office concluded that the case of sexual abuse of Magda by the son of a PiS politician was an investigation that was discontinued – twice – without justification. The work of two prosecutors was examined. There was a suspicion that they had tampered with evidence, but the prosecutor in Poznań found that there were no irregularities. She refused to initiate an investigation.
– The decision is at least premature and the investigation and evidence should be continued in this case. Hence the decision to initiate an investigation today, says Łukasz Wawrzyniak from the District Prosecutor's Office in Poznań.
The National Prosecutor's Office will also handle the case. The state commission on pedophilia requested the case files. – I regret that the State Commission did not monitor this case earlier. This worries me, I will look into this matter, says Karolina Bućko, chairwoman of the State Commission for Counteracting Pedophilia.
Rosa: a terrible harm was done to the child, the institutions turned their backs on the matterTVN24
The investigation into the sexual abuse of Magda N. has been resumed. No one was charged. The prosecutor's office in Toruń asked the court in Gdańsk to question the injured party.
– This action should be performed immediately. The interrogation will take place in a special room with the participation of an expert psychologist, says Mariusz Kaźmierczak from the District Court in Gdańsk.
Magda is still very fragile. That's why he won't reveal his face. We changed her voice. She decided to tell her story to a reporter of the “Polska i Świat” program on TVN24. – I am also here in the interest of those other girls who never speak, who are silent, who are afraid because we do not have adequate care for people after such traumas – says Mrs. Magda.
There is a long way to end the case. The change is that the justice system acts and does not dismiss the case.
Main photo source: TVN24