The Charleroi Criminal Court on Monday sentenced a man in his sixties to six years’ imprisonment and five years' probation for molesting his 13-year-old step-daughter.
The defendant admitted to having repeatedly touched the minor between July 2022 and January 2023.
The 13-year-old had complained to the social welfare centre in Thuin about the fondling and comments made to her by her stepfather in her mother’s absence. The centre then notified the Charleroi public prosecutor’s office.
The defendant admitted to the offences at the criminal court, but was unable to explain his conduct.
The deputy public prosecutor requested a sentence of six years’ imprisonment and five years’ probation for the defendant.
He had already been sentenced in January 2015 to five years’ imprisonment, suspended on probation, for rape and similar offences.
The man had also appeared before the courts in 1998 for an indecent assault.
The defence, for its part, had pleaded for an “extremely strict and monitored” probation.
