Brno court sends pensioner to eight years in prison for rape of step-granddaughter
The man abused a minor girl for two years and threatened her into silence. Brno regional court sentenced him to eight years in prison and ordered him to pay half a million crowns in compensation.
Pensioner abused step-granddaughter, threatened her with "war" if she told
Brno regional court has sentenced a pensioner to eight years in prison for repeated sexual abuse of his step-granddaughter. The man must also pay the girl half a million crowns as compensation. Details of the case were obtained by Novinky.cz from a verdict handed down in mid-summer.
The girl came into the care of her grandmother and the grandmother's partner after her own parents stopped looking after her. She found no safety in this environment either. The pensioner exploited moments when he was alone at home with the girl, and for two years sexually abused her. He threatened her that if she told anyone, there would be "war" at home.
According to the court, the total number of attacks ran into the dozens, possibly even hundreds of cases. The girl confided her experience first to a friend, then to school staff. She later described the practices she had been subjected to to investigators — the court described these in its verdict, but Novinky did not publish them given the sensitivity of the case.
Defendant denied guilt, court rejected his defence
Before a bench headed by judge Jaroslava Bartošová, the pensioner categorically denied all guilt. He claimed the girl had made everything up after he forbade her from getting a piercing. As proof of his alleged inability, he presented a urological condition. Doctors refuted his claim, as did his partner in part. When the defendant's computer was examined, it was found that he had searched for pornographic content depicting sexual contact with young women.
The bench found the man's defence to be implausible and refuted. The court also emphasised a fundamental physical inequality: against an eleven-year-old girl stood a man weighing 130 kilogrammes and measuring nearly 180 centimetres, who was moreover an existential support figure for the girl.
Grandmother disbelieved, girl placed in alternative care
Immediately after the abuse was reported, the grandmother sided with her partner. She attempted to persuade her granddaughter to change her testimony. "The grandmother texted with her, was angry and the girl gained the impression that she didn't believe her," the court stated in describing the girl's testimony.
The girl had expected to return to her grandmother and for the defendant to leave the household. The opposite happened — she had to leave home. She is currently in alternative family care.
When handing down the sentence, judge Bartošová recalled the scale of losses the girl had suffered: "As a result of the defendant's criminal conduct, this girl has lost what was, for her, an alternative but nonetheless primary family in which she had grown up since childhood and which had been a substitute for a standard family."
The girl has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from what happened, which significantly complicates her life, according to the court.
Sentence of eight years within possible range of five to twelve
The pensioner had been punished previously, including for violent criminal activity. The statutory sentencing range in his case was five to twelve years' imprisonment. The court ultimately decided that eight years in prison was the appropriate sentence, and ordered him to pay the girl half a million crowns as damages.
Source: Novinky.cz