The Public Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday requested an eight-year prison sentence at the Charleroi Correctional Court for a man on trial, in absentia, for raping a vulnerable young girl between July 2017 and March 2022.
In late March 2022, after a late-night stroll, the young girl’s behaviour raised doubts in her mother’s mind. When questioned, the mentally impaired victim revealed that she had been taken to the defendant’s home and that she had been sexually assaulted.
The defendant, who was not in court on Wednesday, said at a hearing that he had had “consensual sexual relations” with the victim for over four years.
“As far as I was concerned, she was in her right mind,” he said. “She suggested I take off her panties and pants. She voluntarily lay down on the couch. She asked me to.”
The public prosecutor described the rapes committed by the suspect as “absolute cowardice” and requested a sentence of eight years’ in prison.
Judgment is expected on 17 January 2024.
