Man finally convicted on appeal for rape of 11-year-old girl

A thirty-something was convicted on appeal to seven years in prison for the rape of a girl of eleven years, was learned Tuesday, November 27 from judicial source. His acquittal had fed the debate on the establishment of a minimum age consent to a badual act.

One year after the acquittal pronounced by the Assize Court of Seine-et-Marne, the Assize Court of Paris ruled on November 7 that this man was guilty and sentenced his imprisonment registration on the bad offender file, said this source.

In 2017, the first Assize Court found that the elements of rape (coercion, threat, violence and surprise) were not established. The public prosecutor, who had required eight years of imprisonment, had appealed.

The facts went back to August 2009when the pre-teenager had followed the accused, 22 years old at the time, to a park. His family had knowledge of the facts in discovering her pregnancy in 2010. The child had been placed in foster care. The young man has always maintained that the relationship was granted.

Establishment of a minimum age of 15

This acquittal occurred when a similar case, between a 28-year-old man and an eleven-year-old girl, sparked controversy in Val-d'Oise: the Pontoise prosecutor's office decided to prosecute him for "badual abuse" – qualification involving the consent of the minor- and not for "rape". A judicial inquiry for rape was subsequently opened.

Many voices had risen to ask for a "presumption of non-consent", who would consider as rape any penetration on a minor under 15 years.

Believing that such automaticity might be rejected by the Constitutional Council, the executive finally abandoned the idea, prompting criticism from badociations and professionals in the field of child protection.

The law against badual and gender-based violence, adopted this summer, specifies that when the facts are committed on a minor, up to fifteen years, "the moral constraint or the surprise are characterized by the abuse of the vulnerability of the victim does not not having the necessary discernment for these acts ".

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