Thursday, February 15, 2018

France: Lawyers for 29 year old paedophile claim 11 year old victim isn't a child.

(Paris) A 29-year-old French man went on trial on Tuesday accused of raping a 11 year old girl whom he met in a Paris Park. The man then  took her to a stairwell and asked her to perform oral sex. After receiving this, he suggested, reportedly without exerting any physical constraint, that they both go to his apartment. The girl allegedly followed the man again and they engaged in a sexual act. After getting dressed, the man asked the girl not to tell anyone about the incident. But as soon as she left his apartment, she informed her mother, who immediately went to the police. However there was anger when the prosecutor's office in the town of Pontoise, a north-western Parisian suburb, put the father of two on trial for charges of "sexual abuse of a minor under 15," rather than for rape. While the girl's family filed a complaint for rape, the public prosecutor's office decided that that there was no evidence to suggest that the sexual relationship had been obtained by "threat, violence, surprise or coercion."

On Tuesday, the judge concluded that the prosecutor had chosen the wrong charge, and ordered a judicial inquiry. The trial has been postponed. Lawyers for the suspect argued that the girl had consented and was aware of what she was doing. Lawyers for the girl said she was far too young and confused to resist. Defence lawyer Marc Goudarzian:
"She was 11-years-and-10-months-old, so nearly 12-years-old. It changes the story, So she is not a child."
His partner in crime Sandrine Parise-Heideiger went further, stating:
"We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose”.
The case has sparked a strong debate on the age of sexual consent in France, which does not have a legal age under which a minor cannot agree to a sexual relationship.Children aged five and under cannot consent. Under current French law, only sexual acts committed with the use of "violence, coercion, threat or surprise" are considered to be rape, regardless of the victim's age.

Suspect: pictured centre,