I ask you to understand that it is impossible for me to vividly portray the violence of Prokipczaks attack, its effect on me that night, and the fear it instilled, not only by this one pathetic thug, but from the Polish State, this would not be my first encounter with thuggish Polish Police, nor my last. But, at that point, it was the most significant. The fear was not physical, it was much broader than that, and I was right to be afraid, as the violence and threats would continue, from all manner of Polish State actors, for some time to come......to the point that my own Embassy, one and a half years later, when I had returned to Poland to again try to make a statement, advised me to leave Poland and not return, for my own sake.
In the second week of December, some 6 months after my son Piotrs death, I was sitting alone having a drink in a Bar, there were other customers present, who I knew by sight and to say Hello to, Prokipczak was there, drunk as usual......then
Suddenly he jumped up, came at me very aggressively, and started screaming at me. He speaks a little English, and slipped from English to Polish and back again. I will give the basics of the attack and what he said, but understand that this attack lasted for maybe 30 minutes, even longer, while Prokipczak repeated himself over and over, getting ever more aggressive and thuggish.
He accused me of being a Murderer, he screamed that :
"since you like to hit women so much why don't you try to hit a man?"
He kept egging me on to hit him, pushing me, grabbing me, but being a normal human being, with some self-control, I had no intention of hitting him (much as I might have wanted to), on and on he went, so I said to him
"Do you think I'm stupid? Do you really think I'm going to hit a Policeman? Nice try, but it doesn't work".
He then screamed that he would not use his job to arrest me, if I hit him !!
The last time I hit someone I was about 15, and it was on a Rugby pitch, not my style nor has it ever been to resort to violence.
He then ranted and raved, while standing about 5cms from my face, his spittle covering me as he got ever more out of control.
A group of 3 ladies who were at a table nearby were so scared at this point, that they left their drinks, grabbed their coats and fled the pub, for fear of what was happening.
Next Prokipczak told me that I would be dead, that he would slit my throat (whilst simultaneously also making a gesture of slitting it) and told me that my body would be found in a nearby river.
Please remember that I was a foreigner, in a strange place, in Poland, not speaking the Language, having no idea what he was talking about, or why, and knowing full well that as a Policeman in Poland he was untouchable. No matter what he did to me, he would be untouched, ranks would close around him, the State would protect him (as it did), and I would have no protection whatsoever. I did not want to be in this place, this town or this Country, I was there to try to get to the truth about my son Piotrs death. I was there to get Justice for my baby, and to expose what happened to cause his horrendous death. I had had enough of Poland, and its lack of honesty, integrity and Justice, and now a Senior Police officer was threatening to kill me.
Now the nightmare and fear of what would happen to me in this Country was growing by the day.
It has to be explained that Polish Pubs do not phone the Police when there is trouble, they hope it goes away, they try to pretend its not happening, but, call the Police? Never.
In this situation no one was going to call the Police- it would only mean that Prokipczaks own officers would arrive, and what were they going to do? Arrest him? What a joke that idea is!
In the end, at my pleading, a phone call was made to someone I knew, who had introduced Prokipzcak to his girlfriend, and asked that she get the girlfriend to go to the Pub to take control of Prokipczak. Thankfully, some 30 minutes into the attack, this happened,
She , after many attempts, bodily dragged Prokipczak out of the Pub, I was shaking, angry, scared, rattled, ready to explode, a million things going through my brain.
Why had it happened?
What was he talking about?
I knew there was gossip and lies being spread by Oleksyk about me, but this was a Policeman, how could he think it, how could he do what he had just done?
Confusion reigned, and I decided there and then that he would pay for what he had done to me, he would face the consequences, I would report him to the Police, to the Prosecution service, I had 5 witnesses, I had his girlfriend too, I had the bar staff, surely at least some of them would tell the truth, even if they were scared of the Police? Surely?
This night of horror was over, but, events with Prokipczak were not- not long by a long chalk.
In my next post I will detail what he did next, what I did, and later I will detail again what did happen when I finally reported this criminal thug, who works as a Policeman.......(hint- this is Poland).
The first thing that I knew of Prokipczaks illegal attendance at the Post-mortem following Piotrs death, his false notes made, and him having any involvement whatsoever in the so-called investigation into Piotrs death, I would only be aware of about 1 year later, This is important to remember if you are to understand what happened.
