A 41-year-old man who was convicted yesterday by the Mixed Jury Court of Appeal of the Dodecanese for abuse of a minor child was taken to prison.
The court, accepting the independent claims of the defence counsel Mr. Manolis Koutsoukos, recognized to the accused the mitigating circumstance of subsequent good behaviour and imposed a six-year sentence. He was also accused of illegal detention, an offence for which the current law terminated.
It is worth noting that the case was heard for the first time in November 2017 by the Joint Jury Court of Kos, which imposed on the 41-year-old a total sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and 3 months' imprisonment with the appeal having suspensive effect.
The court of first instance had found the 41 year old guilty for the abuse of indecent assault and imposed a sentence of 10 years imprisonment and for the illegal detention he was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment, i.e. 10 years imprisonment and 3 months imprisonment with the appeal having suspensive effect. By the same decision, the court of first instance had suspended the criminal prosecution (under Law 4411/16) for the charge of unlawful violence which had also been brought against the 41-year-old.
"Let me give you a sweet to try"
Apologizing yesterday before the appellate court, the 41-year-old denied the charges against him, stating that "he has not done any of this".
"All I did, and that in the courage of the friendship that bound us together, was to give her some sweets," the accused said in his plea. He pointed out several times that he has a family and two children who were playing with the girl who accused him and that on that day they had given him sweets (spoon sweets) and because he was not eating them he wanted to give them to her.
"Let me give you a sweet to try that they gave me," the 41-year-old told the minor according to his apology in court, and he clarified several times that he also did this with his courage. "I found myself accused here without having done anything and I can't understand why. I am neither a leper, nor a pedophile, nor an extortionist." The 41-year-old said, denying the accusation. As for the blindfolding of the minor child, he said he merely momentarily placed the towel with which he had opened the jar on her forehead and nothing more.
"I didn't do anything cunningly. The kid says all sorts of things that other people tell him to say. They ruined my life, I'm not a bad person or anything."
The "tasting game."
The girl who is now an adult was in court yesterday and testified. The 21-year-old described in detail her visit to the 41-year-old's house on June 14, 2011, where she went in order to get some keys and give them to a third person in the café.
The girl said among other things that when the defendant opened the door he was wearing only his underwear and before leaving he had asked her to return there again "because something wanted her". The 21-year-old described how the 41-year-old tied her hands behind her back with a wire and her eyes with a flannel shirt in order to play a "tasting game", and added that he first made her sit on a chair and then carried her by hand to a bedroom where he molested her.
She added in court that what had happened she realised was wrong and was ashamed to say so, and she also cried and asked the 41-year-old to leave. The guilt of the defendant was also called for by the prosecutor of the court, while the innocence of his client, pointing out specific elements of the trial, was called for by the defense attorney Manolis Koutsoukos.
Source: Proto Thema
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