The Brussels Appeal Court on Monday overturned the conviction of a 44-year-old man who had been sentenced to five years in prison in June 2016 for raping his daughter while she was between 2 ½ and 4 years old. The appeal judges upheld the appeal presented by Defence Attorney Samuel Rosenblatt and acquitted the man, who spent seven months on remand.
During a playground activity on the 27th of August 2011, the little girl, then four years old, had described to a childcarer, using infant language, sexual acts which, she said, her father had committed on her. The childcarer immediately alerted the youth assistance services and the child was removed from the family home. The father had always denied sexually abusing his daughter.
The infant was the last of five siblings. They had already been placed in foster care by a judge in the past following violence in the home between their parents.
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The Brussels Times
