A man in his thirties bribed an elementary school-aged girl with sweets and money. He forbade the victim to tell her mother about the events.
Helsinki the district court sentenced a man born in 1984 to one year and four months of suspended imprisonment for sexually abusing a child.
Over the course of about 1.5 years, the man had touched his female friend’s daughter several times under her clothes. The victim was 8-9 years old at the time of the acts.
Crimes are scheduled for the years 2015-2017. The victim told her mother about the actions only a few years after the mother and her boyfriend had finally broken up.
The on-off relationship between mother and husband began in 2015. The couple spent a lot of time at the woman’s home in Helsinki, and sometimes the man also lived there.
The abuse took place while the mother was at work. The man, who worked as an entrepreneur, was sometimes at home with two victims during the day.
The victim said that the man had bribed and blackmailed the child with sweets and money. The man had forbidden to tell the victim’s mother about the events.
Man denied the charge. The defense estimates that the victim may have wanted to take revenge on the man.
However, the district court considered that the victim’s story could be considered reliable and convincing, especially considering the victim’s age. The victim’s account was considered sufficient to convict the man.
In addition to the prison sentence, the district court sentenced the man to pay the victim 5,000 euros for the suffering caused by the insult. The man was also ordered to do 60 hours of community service.
Man appealed the verdict to the Court of Appeal. The man justified the complaint, among other things, by the fact that the victim’s story had been influenced by a video he saw on YouTube, which dealt with abuse.
The Court of Appeal considered that, taking into account the circumstances of the act, the quality of the sexual acts and the age of the victim, a fair consequence of the acts would be a conditional prison sentence of one year and two months.
The Helsinki Court of Appeal reduced the sentence by two months and revoked the community service. In addition, the compensation to be paid to the victim was reduced to 3,000 euros.
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