The man told the police that he knew it was wrong to touch a minor girl. Later in court, he tried to retract his words and accused the “attacking” interrogator of perversion.
The district court in central Finland sentenced a man to a conditional prison term for child abuse.
During the years 2003-2009, the man abused the girl, who was 9-15 years old at the time of the offence. The convicted man himself was over forty. According to the court, the person at the time of the abuse was a person in whom the victim girl apparently trusted.
The court recognized that at least several dozen sex acts had taken place over the years. One of them was finger sex. Most of the acts took place at the summer house of the victim’s mother, where the man used to visit regularly.
The victim told about the inappropriate sexual touch and sexually suggestive words of the person equally both in the police preliminary inquiry and the district court. According to him, there were situations when no other adult was around.
According to the victim, when he was a little older, he spent less time in the cabin and became “strong-willed”. However, the man’s suggestive words were still on.
The victim told in detail about the rape only after making a criminal complaint in 2021. He had started suffering from mental troubles years ago.
The convicted person denied the allegation that he had committed any sexual act with the victim. He said that he had visited the victim’s summer house several times during the summer, but he was so busy there that he did not have time to spend much time with the victim.
The man claimed that he had only touched the victim in innocent and “ordinary” ways, or possibly unintentionally. According to him, there were no inappropriate or suggestive speeches.
However, during preliminary investigation, the man had said on two separate occasions that he had a sexual interest in the victim since she was a child. He also told police about touching him “in a sexual sense” and how he knew it was wrong.
In court, he tried to retract his words, claiming that the interrogator was “aggressive” and that he himself had added points to the narrative. The man also claimed that the interrogator did not let him read his story before signing the paper. The district court found this highly improbable.
In addition to the man’s own preliminary examination report and the victim’s credible report, the witnesses supported the prosecution.
One of them said that he himself was the target of sexual acts by a man when he was about 13 years old. According to her, the man had promised the victim candy in exchange for taking off her swimsuit once, among other things.
In 2021, police found even more provocative facts on the man’s mobile phone: based on search history, he had searched online for sexual material about children and teenagers.
The district court sentenced the man to one year and ten months in prison for aggravated sexual abuse of a child. According to the court, the sentence can be suspended, as the man has not been previously sentenced to prison and a considerable amount of time has passed since the crimes. As an additional sentence, he also received community service.
The man was ordered to pay a total of 11,000 euros in compensation to the victim of abuse.
The District Court’s decision is not legally binding, because the person has appealed it to the Court of Appeal.
