The owner of three Breda clothing stores has been given a community service order of 240 hours because he had sex with an underage employee of one of his stores. They had sex twice in one week. Although there was no question of coercion, the suspect, as an adult and employer, should have known better, says the judge in Breda. The shop owner also received a suspended prison sentence of 176 days.
The victim is a (then) 15-year-old girl who worked in one of the stores as a side job in the summer of 2021. Soon the two formed a personal bond where they also had contact in private time. The owner picked the girl up by car to go to work, gave her presents and money and invited her to his home.
The contact continued, he gave her a kiss in the car and touched her buttocks in the store. They ended up having sex, once in a hotel and once in the store’s warehouse. The man was 41 at the time.
The public prosecutor wanted the man in jail for 12 months. The judge took into account the fact that the man immediately admitted guilt, that there was no coercion and that he is responsible for the operation of three shops. He also has a family with two children. A prison sentence would have major consequences for the companies and for the family of the man, says the judge.
The man therefore does not have to go to jail, but he will receive a suspended prison sentence of 176 days with a probationary period of two years. If he commits another foul during that period, he will still have to sit. The man must also pay the underage girl 3,000 euros as compensation for emotional suffering. She suffered trauma (PTSD).