A 54-year-old man from the municipality of Borger-Odoorn has been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for rape, sex chatting with minors and possession of child pornography.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) accuses the man of raping a 16-year-old girl in his home in May this year. He had picked her up from her house that day for an afternoon of shopping in Zwolle. Instead of taking her back home, the ride went to his home. There he had sex with her. According to the man, the sex was mutual and agreed upon.
The public prosecutor brushed his defense aside. The initiative came entirely from the side of the much older suspect, the prosecutor said. The teenager was deflowered against her will. “He completely ignored her inexperience in the field of sex. He did not care about her, not even afterwards,” the prosecutor said. The teenager had to shower and was taken home.
She got home around 11 p.m. The family was looking for her and the police had already been called. “Everyone independently stated about the girl’s emotions. She was completely upset.” According to the prosecutor, her story about her day out with the suspect is consistent with the suspect’s telephone and bank details.
The man has been in custody since mid-summer and remained silent until the end of November. He was confronted with the forensic investigation which showed that the semen traces on the teenager came from him. The man acknowledges the sex, but there was no coercion, he believes. Before the sex, he had contact with her via Snapchat for six months.
He responded to her photo at the time and many conversations followed, the man said. The teenager told the police that she found the man scary, but he gave her attention and was kind to her. “A 16-year-old girl who lives in a foster home. She does self-harm, among other things. She tells him about this and sends him a photo of it,” the prosecutor described the teenager’s vulnerability.
The suspect allegedly insisted on an appointment and, according to the public prosecutor, she did not dare to resist. According to her, rape can be proven. There were nude photos of the teenager on his phone. He also had chat conversations on his phone with girls between the ages of 12 and 15. “He immediately wanted sex and was coercive about it,” the prosecutor said.
She is particularly concerned about the damage the man allegedly caused to the 16-year-old complainant. “A 16-year-old child cannot cope with the will of a man 38 years older, especially when it comes to sex,” the prosecutor said. In addition, she believes that the man has no insight into how reprehensible that behavior is. “His own urges come first. He harms minors. He is only after sex. He succeeded with the 16-year-old.”
The lawyer believes that there is insufficient evidence of coercion and that an acquittal should follow for rape. If a sentence is to be imposed, she believes it should be largely conditional, possibly with community service.
The court will make its ruling on January 9.