A 52-year-old Zambian migrant was sentenced to 18 months of probation after sexually assaulting the 13-year-old daughter of his friend, which means he will not serve any prison time unless he violates his probation.
The sentencing, handed out in a Caen judicial court on May 28, 2024, was for a case dating back to Feb. 19, 2023, in Calvados.
On that day, after spending an evening with his friend, the Zambian migrant’s friend offered to take him home along with two other guests. The 13-year-old daughter of the driver also came along.
The 52-year-old Zambian man, who is seeking asylum in France, ended up sitting in the backseat with the daughter, where he began sexually assaulting the girl, according to French news outlet Ouest France.
The 13-year-old testified in court, saying: “He touched my leg, then my chest. He forced me to kiss him, he took my hand and put it on the fly of his pants.” She stated that the Zambian man also penetrated her anus with his fingers.
The defendant admits to sexually assaulting the girl but denies penetrating her, saying: “I ask myself the question every day: why did I do that? It was the first time in my life.”
The mother of the victim said in court that her daughter has since tried to commit suicide two times due to the incident.
“She was already fragile but what happened accentuated her condition,” said an expert psychiatrist during the trial.
The prosecutor said the defendant is a sexual predator, saying, “As the psychiatrist who examined him said, there is a sort of sexual fixation in the defendant’s life. The impulse towards the victim, which he does not explain and for which he expresses no regret, is particularly serious and worrying.”
Due to the nature of the crime, the age of the victim, and the fact that she has suffered grave psychological harm due to the incident, the prosecutor was seeking two years of imprisonment, deportation, and judicial monitoring of the defendant.
However, the judge issued no jail time at all, instead giving the defendant a suspended sentence and probation, along with a ban on contact with the victim and orders to leave French territory. However, less than 10 percent of those people with deportation orders in France are actually forced to leave in the end, with some nationalities having as low as a 0.2 percent deportation rate.
The Zambian man has also been ordered to pay €1,000 to the victim for “moral” damage and €1,800 to the victim’s mother for legal fees.