In the middle of the night, around 2.30 a.m., the young man sneaked into the nearby children’s room of a 13-year-old girl, unzipped the sleeping girl’s trousers and grabbed her pants. Sexual abuse and sexual assault is what the lawyers call this – a serious criminal offence. Before a juvenile jury at the Giessen district court, R., now 22 years old, admitted the crime without any fuss or quibble.
Beyond that, however, the accused did not give any further details about the incident in the early morning hours of January 19, 2020 in a village in the district of Giessen. The adolescent girl, who had filed a complaint jointly with her family, was forced into a months-long ordeal, the family’s legal counsel explained in his role as joint plaintiff in court. The girl is undergoing therapeutic counselling. “She has to deal with the event for the rest of her life,” said the joint plaintiff’s representative. He demanded a harsh punishment – at least not a suspended sentence. Especially since R. did not utter a word of apology or regret in court.
However, the court decided in favour of a suspended sentence – and had not made it easy for itself, as Judge Heiko Kriewald explained in his reasoning: “The – albeit short – but clear confession of the perpetrator was probably the decisive factor for the sentence, which otherwise might have been harsher.
Judge Kriewald sentenced him to one year and eight months in prison, suspended for three years. In addition, the young man has to participate in sexual therapy sessions and pay 1000 euros to the association “Wildwasser” with its counselling centre against sexual abuse.
Why is the prison sentence suspended? The court credited the man for his unapologetic admission of the crime and for showing understanding – even at the risk that this could have brought him to prison and ruined his residence status in Germany. R. left his home country Afghanistan as a teenager in 2013 and came overland via Turkey to Greece – and from there to Germany in 2015. He quickly learned the German language, went back to school and then went to work, today as a plant operator in an industrial company. He supports his family in Afghanistan with his income. In the event of a harsh judgement, R. could risk his status as a refugee under immigration law.
With the sentence, the court fully backs the prosecution’s case. The public prosecutor, Dr Volker Bützler, had also indicated that he would be more lenient and had pleaded for giving the young man “one last chance”. Because with his confession, R. had spared other witnesses and also the victim of his assault from appearing in court.
According to the public prosecutor, the accused is also supported by the fact that he has made great efforts to arrive in Germany since his entry almost six years ago and is well integrated professionally. The prosecutor’s motto: “favourable social prognosis”.
R.’s defence lawyer also pointed out that his client had built up social ties here, was successfully pursuing his profession and had already spent three months in pre-trial detention between February and May after the crime.
But why the emphasis on “last chance”? R. has already attracted attention once before, he was already on trial in Lower Saxony last year. At that time, he was also charged with sexual abuse and sexual assault. He had met an eleven-year-old girl from Hanover for sex several times at a railway station. However, as it appeared in court, these meetings were “consensual”. Since the underage girl had also sent pictures of herself to R., it also brought him a charge of possession of child pornography – and in 2020 a juvenile sentence of two years, which is also suspended.
In view of the second incident of this kind, the public prosecutor as well as the court consider therapy “necessary and appropriate”. Only “one more minor violation of the conditions, such as not attending therapy or some other offence – and the probation will be revoked”, Judge Kriewald gave the young man on his way.
https://www.giessener-allgemeine.de/giessen/letzte-chance-90889579.html