Nowy Świat, Leszno. He hit a 13-year-old cyclist and was sentenced. He is still at large

The case is reported by Onet.pl, which received a letter from the 13-year-old’s mother. The woman is faced with a strong sense of injustice due to the fact that the perpetrator of the accident, a former policeman, still does not feel the consequences of causing the accident in which her daughter died.

“No remorse, humility, reflection that he killed someone’s child, not to mention any attempt at contact and any form of apology,” Ms. Monika writes in a letter to Onet.

The accident occurred on July 16, 2021 after 7 p.m. on the Leszno-Pawłowice route near the village of Nowy Świat. Krystian G., the driver of a Skoda, then a 30-year-old resident of the Lipno commune, hit a 13-year-old cyclist at a bicycle crossing. The police findings showed that the driver was moving very fast – this was evidenced by traces on the road after long braking and the fact that the bicycle the girl was riding was several meters from the scene of the incident.

The unconscious teenager with serious injuries was transported by air ambulance to a hospital in Poznań. A few days later the girl died.

The perpetrator of the accident is a former policeman. According to Onet.pl, Krystian G.’s father was also an officer.

Originally, the man was to be held responsible for an ordinary accident. The prosecutor’s office did not request his arrest at that time.

Why this decision? Łukasz Wawrzyniak, spokesman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Poznań, explains to tvn24.pl what the District Prosecutor’s Office in Leszno was guided by at that time: – There were no grounds for applying provisional arrest. The man had no criminal record, he was accused of an accident, which did not result in death at that time. The sobriety test using an exhalation analyzer and the test using drug testers gave negative results, the perpetrator stayed at the scene of the incident – he enumerates.

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The evidence available to investigators at that time “did not allow determining the degree of his violation of road safety rules.” – It did not allow it to be determined whether the speed limit at the place of the incident was exceeded at the time of the incident – explains Wawrzyniak.

As he says, that is why the prosecutor’s office applied preventive measures to the suspect in the form of police supervision, property bail and a ban on leaving the country. – The fact that this gentleman had previously been a policeman had no influence on the issue of applying preventive measures – says Wawrzyniak.

After the girl’s death, the charge was changed to causing a fatal accident. He faced a penalty of up to 8 years in prison. Despite this, investigators did not decide to change preventive measures.

– Courts most often indicate that a severe punishment alone is not a reason to apply pre-trial detention. They are used when there is a real risk of escape or obstruction of preparatory proceedings. There was no such fear, even though the qualifications had changed. Here, there were no elements of obstructing the proper course of proceedings on the part of the suspect – explains Wawrzyniak.

But the preventive measures were not changed even after further investigators’ findings and the circumstances of the accident came to light.

After the accident, according to Onet.pl, when searching Krystian G., the police found a bag with white crystalline powder (later tests showed that it was amphetamine). A blood test was then ordered, and it turned out that at the time of the incident he had taken a narcotic drug. Additionally, one of the witnesses testified that after the tragedy, the man allegedly ran into the forest to throw away a bag with another portion of drugs.

The police found him. – However, it could not be automatically assumed that the bag containing these drugs belonged to the suspect – says Wawrzyniak. The suspect’s advantage was that the amount of drugs was small.

Another thing potentially to the detriment of Krystian G. is the issue of dismissal from service. Onet.pl reports that the man worked at the Municipal Police Headquarters in Leszno, in the Prevention Department, in the years 2012-2019. He was “fired” after in the summer of 2019 in Kołobrzeg, before entering an electronic music festival, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, he attacked plainclothes policemen who intervened against him.

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However, as Onet.pl writes, he did not answer for this act. The case was discontinued after experts found that G. suffered from mental disorders. For the same reason, another case was discontinued – for destruction of property, initiated against him in 2020. Therefore, from a formal point of view, he had no criminal record.

Krystian G. did not admit to causing the accident during the proceedings. He claimed that he was driving correctly, that the view was blocked by trees and bushes, that the bicycle crossing was behind a curve in the road, and that the 13-year-old girl – as he argued – was not particularly careful.

However, forensic accident reconstruction experts found that he was driving almost twice as fast as he should have – about 129 km/h, while the signs allowed for driving up to 70 km/h.

In July 2023, the court in Leszno sentenced Krystian G. to 5 years and 3 months in prison. The verdict was not final, the court decided that Krystian G. was to be temporarily arrested until it became final. The man was not present at the verdict announcement. He did not report to arrest himself. According to Onet.pl, he is still free. “The police claim that since the court did not issue a warrant of arrest, it is not looking for him. In turn, the court in Leszno indicates that it ordered the police to search for the accused, and issuing a warrant of arrest is not an obligation at all,” writes Onet.pl.

The appeal hearing will take place in December at the District Court in Poznań