The Liège Court of Appeal sentenced a 27-year-old man on Tuesday for rape and sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl to 15 years in prison. The victim, the defendant’s daughter-in-law, had become pregnant with twins following the incident.
The investigation began following the therapeutic abortion performed on the 9-year-old girl, then 8 weeks pregnant. DNA analyzes performed on the fetuses revealed that his mother’s companion was the parent.
Other analyzes made it possible to determine that the facts had taken place at the end of January 2021, when the girl was 9 years old and had just had her first menstruation a few months earlier. The mother had worried regarding their sudden disappearance and her daughter’s discomfort before realizing that she was pregnant.
The defendant had initially claimed that the young girl was asking for these sexual relations. He had admitted his error before the Court of Appeal, but had maintained that he no longer remembered the facts.
The general prosecutor’s office had requested a 10-year prison sentence. But the court found the punishment insufficient and sentenced the defendant to 15 years in prison.
