Defense lawyer on rape case stated that the French man, 29, accused of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl has done nothing wrong because “she is not a child”
The girl’s family say she was too young and confused to consent to sex with the man – a father a two.
The defendant’s lawyers claim the girl knew what she was doing and consented to the sex. But the girl’s legal team have said she was simply too young and confused to resist.
“She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old,” the defence lawyer Marc Goudarzian said Tuesday. “It changes the story. So she is not a child.”
Sandrine Parise-Heideiger, who is also defending the suspect, went further, saying: “We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose.”
She added that when children have “sexual expressiveness and you have an attitude of putting yourself in danger… it doesn’t necessarily mean the person on the other side is a sexual predator”.
French law defines rape as sexual penetration committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.
It is already illegal in France to have sex with under 15s, but rape charges can only be brought if prosecutors can prove the act was non-consensual.
The man’s lawyers say he met the girl in a park and she voluntarily followed him to an apartment and consented to intercourse. They added that their client, who was 28 at the time, thought she was 16.
The girl’s family filed a rape complaint in the town of Montgomery but prosecutors rejected it after apparently deciding violence or coercion was not used.
Children’s rights groups and a psychiatrist have testified in the case. The family’s lawyer Carine Diebolt, last week asked the court to change the charge to rape.
Armelle Le Bigot Macaux, president of the COFRADE, an umbrella group for children’s rights, said the suspect “knew very well she was a young child. This young child isn’t protected today by our French society.”
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