Thessaloniki: 5 years in prison and house arrest for 74-year-old, guilty of lewd acts on a minor

The Mixed Sworn Court of Appeal of Thessaloniki convicted a 74-year-old man for lewd acts he committed against an 11-year-old girl, imposing a 5-year prison sentence, which he decided to serve at home. Examining the case in the second degree, the Court found him guilty of abusing a minor in carelessness, with the district attorney referring – in his plea – to a “classic case of pedophilia” where the perpetrator chose as his victim “a child from a family in miserable financial situation”.

The case began to be investigated in February 2017 with a prosecutor’s order triggered by a complaint made by the minor’s teachers, while social welfare services intervened and the minor was placed (along with her younger brother) in protective custody.

Her repeated unexcused absences from class, the defendant’s frequent presence at school, but also some “suspicious” photos noticed by her classmates on the minor’s “tablet”, were the signs that mobilized the principal of the primary school.

From the preliminary investigation, it seems to have emerged that the pensioner had met the minor in the park in her neighborhood, where she went “playing with kittens”, as she stated in the statement she gave to the police and was read in Court.

“He said he would bring milk to feed them,” he testified, describing their meeting. “He was serving soda, chocolate […] He came every day,” she testified. It is alleged that the pensioner acquired friendly relations with the 11-year-old’s family, since, as she testified, she “helped us by buying things we asked for” while also coming to her house. In one of his visits, he allegedly performed lewd acts against her, according to what the 11-year-old testified, even offering her a 2 euro pocket money.

“He wouldn’t leave her alone. She went to her school, she rang the bells of the house,” said the minor’s mother of Albanian origin during her examination at the Court. “He came home several times, around 30 […] He hurt my daughter,” she testified, clarifying that she was absent from work, while her husband had a problem with his residence papers.

In his apology, the 74-year-old denied all the charges attributed to him, describing the content of the complaint as false.

At first instance, he had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for indecent abuse and seduction of a minor and had been released pending the Court of Appeal (he had been held in pre-trial detention).

Applying a recent change in the law, as commented by trial actors, the appellate court found him guilty only of abusing a minor in indecency, with this act absorbing the second, that of seduction, and for that he was given a reduced sentence. Due to his age, it was decided to serve the sentence at home, a possibility provided by the new Criminal Code to convicts over 70 years old.

RES-EMP

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