During the search for the three-year-old in April last year, in the first days after the child disappeared, many people spoke of a possible kidnapping by individuals associated with his father. Two witnesses at the hearing on Monday, June 7, recalled this lead. Both spoke about whom the accused had been meeting, the environment in which he moved and what he did for a living. More than a year ago, the kidnapping theory—at least at the very beginning of the search—was investigated by the police.
When all observers could only guess what might have happened, the police investigated this lead and the woman who suggested that the child might have been abducted in revenge for the father’s wrongdoing. To everyone, the information about a kidnapping seemed more acceptable than the mere thought of the little boy’s death. It offered some hope.
Our first report from the site where the child disappeared, at the allotment gardens in Nowogrodziec, was an interview with Mrs. Stanisława, who had seen the boy before he disappeared and helped search for Kacper.
“The child disappeared in some strange way. I think that if he had drowned, the body would have been somewhere, or there would at least have been a trace of the bicycle. After all, the child weighed something, and even if he had slipped into the water, some imprint in the ground or grass would have remained. But there was nothing. Further on, there are only bushes, and the path is so narrow that an adult cannot get through there, nor can a child,” Stanisława Pawłowska said in April 2020.
The prosecutor charged the child’s father with exposing the child to the immediate danger of losing his life and failing to fulfill his duties of care toward the child. Rafał B. denied that the child had taken drugs because of him, as well as leaving intoxicating substances in a place accessible to the child. He admitted that he had failed to supervise the child and had driven a car under the influence of intoxicating substances.