Leszek Gwiazdecki v Polish Judicial Authority

MR JUSTICE FORDHAM: 1. Having considered afresh the question of extradition bail, under my s.22 (1A) Criminal Justice Act 1967 jurisdiction, I have come to the same conclusion as did District Judge Sternberg on 14 June 2023 and am refusing bail. Notwithstanding the suite of proposed bail conditions, including all the usual bail safeguards and a £500 pre-release cash security, and notwithstanding the evidence of the medical condition of the 39 year old Appellant, I have concluded in all the circumstances that there are substantial grounds for believing that if released on conditional bail he would fail to surrender. I have assessed risk having regard to all the features and circumstances of the case, in this conviction Extradition Arrest Warrant case. The Appellant is likely to perceive an imminent ‘regularising’ solution to the points previously made about (a) the current April 2022 Warrant being now ‘out of sync’ with the April 2023 sentence-aggregation order in Poland and/or (b) new Further Information possibly needing an extension of time. The Appellant may well also perceive as slender the prospect, at the July 2023 scheduled extradition hearing, of his resisting extradition to face the balance of his 20 month custodial term (minus his now 8 months qualifying remand). On the face of it, he has previously run away acoss borders from that very responsibility: he was in Poland in 2016 and aware of the 12 month custodial sentence (for the 2015 sexual assault), and the activation of the previously-suspended 14 month custodial sentence (for the 2012/2013 offences including domestic violence and a threat to kill); he then decided to come to the UK in 2017; and he did so leaving behind in Poland the 4 children from a previous relationship, despite what he says are continuing ties. In my assessment, his relatively recent relationship (which began 10 months before his October 2022 extradition arrest), and the other features of the case, do not allay the serious abscond-risk concerns. 22.6.23