A former professional athlete raped an uninformed family friend. The Court of Appeal reduced the man’s prison sentence by half a year due to media attention.
The former hockey player Hannu Pikkarainen the rape sentence received was reduced in the appeals court.
In April 2022, the Helsinki District Court sentenced Pikkarainen to two years of unconditional imprisonment for the rape that took place in June 2021.
The victim was a family friend of Pikkarainen’s, who had fallen asleep with her clothes on during the sessions at Pikkarainen’s home. The victim had woken up to Pikkarainen raping her.
Quickie appealed the verdict to the Court of Appeal. According to Pikkarainen, the victim had been awake and active.
Primarily, Pikkarainen demanded that the charge be dismissed or, alternatively, that the punishment be reduced. According to Pikkarainen, the punishment was too harsh, and the amount of attention the case received should be taken into account when measuring it.
The Court of Appeal, like the district court, came to the conclusion that Pikkarainen should have understood that the victim was sleeping when sexual intercourse began.
According to the court, Pikkarainen should have ascertained the victim’s state of wakefulness and his willingness to engage in sexual intercourse.
The Helsinki Court of Appeal also found Pikkarainen guilty of rape.
Court of Appeal however, reduced Pikkarainen’s prison sentence. The sentence was reduced and mitigated to one year and six months of suspended imprisonment.
Pikkarainen told the Court of Appeal that his relationship and friendships ended because of the case. He also said that he lost his earning potential. According to Pikkarainen, more than a hundred newspaper articles were written about the case in two years.
The Court of Appeal considered the publicity received by the case to be exceptional and unpredictable from Pikkarainen’s point of view, also stigmatizing.
Thus, according to the court of appeals, the publicity the case received had to be taken into account as a mitigating factor in the punishment.
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