The unnamed migrant, who was 20-years-old at the time of the attacks, was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor and handed a light three-year sentence by a district court, with an additional charge of aggravated rape being thrown out, reports Yleisradio Oy (Yle), Finland’s public broadcaster.
The decision baffled prosecutors and caused outrage among members of the public, but was upheld by an appeal court, which agreed there was “no evidence to indicate that the sexual encounter involved violence or that the child was overcome by fear or incapacitated in any other way”, according to Yle.
The ruling resulted in what Yle describes as a “spirited public debate”, with Turku University’s Jussi Tapani and Matti Tolvanen of the University of Eastern Finland, both professors of criminal law, taking the judiciary to task in the national press.
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Tuula Tamminen, Professor of Child Psychiatry at the University of Tampere, told the press there was no way the 10-year-old victim could have really understood what was happening to them.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has upheld the decision of the district court and the appeal court, and the migrant’s short sentence will not be increased.
Finland: 23yo can have sex with 10yo and it's not rape. No proof 10yo was "forced"
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