Polish criminal allowed back in the UK as he avoids sentence for rape | Politics | News

A Polish man extradited from the UK after serving a prison sentence for theft has been allowed to return to that country to avoid a prison sentence in his homeland for raping a teenage girl. Krystian Debinski, 44, known to police in Poland as “Sandwich”, arrived here in December 2023 despite being sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for sexual assault on children.

Following a 17-month court battle, the father of four will be extradited to Poland for a second time to serve a prison sentence following a verdict at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last month. Debinski raped his victim in the town of Ziebice in October 2015 after administering an unknown “psychotropic substance”. According to Polish prosecutors, “he lost consciousness and RP [Debinski] “He raped her and caused further injuries.”

The teenager then beat her, trying to “influence her” to change her evidence after she reported him to the police.

Debinski has a long list of convictions in Poland – 11 for 23 crimes between 2000 and 2017, mostly for theft, for a total of more than 21 years in prison.

He came to Britain to start a new life but was sentenced to seven years in prison at the Old Bailey in November 2017 for burglary offences. The trial judge at the time recommended that he be deported at the end of his sentence.

While in prison, he was rearrested for rape in Poland and consented to deportation in June 2020 following his early release from a theft sentence in Britain.

Debinski was present at the rape trial in Poland in January 2022 and was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

The verdict was confirmed in the Wroclaw Court of Appeal in September the following year, but he disappeared before being imprisoned and returned to England months later with his second wife after changing his name to Krystian Zelmert.

Debinski was rearrested in Southend, Essex, in May last year on Polish rape charges and has since been detained at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.

At his extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, his legal team argued it would be unfair to extradite him on the grounds that he had a right to a family life and had health problems, including multiple suicide attempts.

District Judge John Zani, who ordered his dismissal, said: “It is appreciated that RP is experiencing distress. [Debinski] and to his current partner. However, this situation alone is not enough to prevent an extradition decision.

“I take into account that there will likely be insurmountable Brexit uncertainty for this alleged individual if an extradition order is granted and that he will seek to return, bearing in mind not only his enviable list of convictions but also the fact that he has been recommended for deportation by the crown court judge who sentenced him to seven years in prison.”

Debinski was scheduled to be sent home on October 22, but his lawyers appealed his dismissal to the Supreme Court.

On Saturday the Home Office was facing questions about why Debinski was allowed to return to the UK when he was facing a prison sentence in Poland for child rape and had previously been removed from that country.

A Home Office spokesman said: “When foreign nationals commit serious crimes in our country, we will always do everything we can to deport them.

“This Government deported almost 5,200 foreign national criminals in its first year in office, an increase of 14% on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.”

Debinski’s attorneys, HP Gower, declined to comment.