The court of appeal on Monday reduced the sentence handed down to a convicted paedophile by six months.
The court found that the court of first instance had “incorrectly evaluated” testimonies about the abuse given by the children’s mother and father, as well as by a clinical psychologist.
In addition, it said, the court of first instance had “incorrectly exercised its discretion not to recall the complainants in the absence of the burden or proof” regarding various elements of the charges against the man convicted.
This, the court said, resulted in “the wrong conviction in the absence of supporting testimony and in the substantially flawed administration of justice”.
The offences of which the man had been convicted pertained to assaults of two children his now ex-wife had had during a previous marriage. The children had been born in October 2006 and February 2005 respectively.
At the time the offences were committed, the man was married to the children’s mother, and they had all lived together since 2016. In addition, the man and the children’s mother had a child together.
The court of first instance had found that the first assault on the first girl had taken place on November 17, 2020, when the victim was 14 years old.
The man entered her bedroom late at night wearing only his underwear and asked her to massage him, which she did for a while. He then sat on her behind, took off her shirt and bra, and began to lick her back.
At this point, the girl told him she did not want to continue, and he left the room, telling her to not tell her mother what had happened.
The assaults committed on the second girl had taken place between January 1, 2018, and July 31, 2020, the first of which therefore taking place when she was just 13 years old.
The court of first instance had heard that the man had hugged her tightly, touching her at the same time in various parts of her body, mainly above the coccyx and on the sides of her midriff.
Taking all this into account, the man was initially sentenced on four counts: three and a half years for sexually abusing the first girl and 18 months for indecently assaulting her, and two years for sexually abusing the second girl and 18 months for indecently assaulting her.
The court of appeal on Monday found that ruling to be “manifestly excessive”, and thus reduced the man’s sentence for the first charge from three and a half years to three years.
The rest of the charges remained unchanged, with the court saying, “the sentence in question is within the correct legal framework and there is no reason for any other intervention.”
