Man jailed for attempt to abduct four-year-old boy

Palosz was inspired by "staged abduction" videos on YouTube

A man has been jailed for attempting to abduct a four-year-old boy in a public car park.

Andrzej Palosz, 48, claimed he wanted to see how the child's mother would react to her son being taken away by a "random stranger" after he had watched child-snatcher videos on YouTube.

Palosz pleaded guilty to the attempted abduction, which occurred in Bathgate, West Lothian, on 7 May.

He was sentenced to 40 months in prison and will be supervised by social workers for 12 months on his release.

Palosz, who is a Polish national and moved to Scotland in 2016, will be deported back to Poland after he has completed his sentence.

The court heard that the boy's mother was collecting her two children from Bathgate Early Years Centre at about midday when she saw Palosz speaking to her son and leading him away by the hand.

She grabbed her son from his grasp and began buckling both of her children into their car seats.

'Extremely shaken'

Palosz then attempted to pull the boy out of the vehicle, before his mother managed to close the door.

When she tried to get into the car, the accused blocked her path and shouted "open the door".

A witness who saw what was happening intervened by distracting Palosz long enough for the woman to get into the car and drive away, contacting the police as she left.

Officers described the woman as being "extremely shaken and frightened" by the experience.

The police found Palosz sitting on the steps of the car park, under the influence of alcohol.

'Staged abduction' videos

Lesley Cunningham, defending, told Livingston Sheriff Court that Palosz had watched "staged abduction" videos on Youtube, in which an individual would attempt to take a child from an unsuspecting member of the public to see how they reacted.

The defence lawyer said: "He tells me this was not an incident that was in any way premeditated.

"He tells me it was almost an opportunistic event in that he spotted the family and this idea came to him."

Ms Cunningham said the accused was homeless before his arrest, had been sleeping at his place of work and had been drinking heavily.

The attempted abduction was captured on the mother's phone, who said she began recording because she feared for her safety.

Ms Cunningham described Palosz's behaviour in the video as "completely shambolic" and "entirely under the influence of alcohol".

She added that Palosz wished to apologise to the family and recognised the trauma that he had caused.

Sheriff Susan Craig described the incident as "horrific" and said she had read the victim impact statement in which the boy's mother told how she was now fearful to to go out.

She said she had considered remitting the case to the High Court for a longer sentence due to the seriousness of the offence.