Horse breeder convicted of raping three minors; appeals court upholds six-year sentence
Brno Regional Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by Jiří Vrbka, whom the municipal court sentenced to six years in prison for raping three girls aged around sixteen in the years 2019 to 2022. The man denied the charges and labelled the victims liars.
Horse breeder convicted of raping three minors; appeals court upholds six-year sentence
Brno Regional Court on Thursday upheld a six-year prison sentence for Jiří Vrbka, who according to the judgment raped three girls aged approximately sixteen. The crimes took place between 2019 and 2022 in the Brno region. The first-instance verdict was delivered by the municipal court on the basis of the victims' testimony, expert assessments and other evidence, according to the Novinky.cz website.
The defendant denied the charges throughout the entire proceedings. His defence counsel argued at the hearing that the court failed to take into account communication between the parties and submitted a witness statement challenging the credibility of one of the victims. Vrbka himself stated that he did not believe the girls, and after the verdict was delivered, he labelled the victims liars.
The prosecutor rejected the defence arguments. According to him, the communication following the attacks was consistent with the psychological state of the victims. The victims' representative added that the theory of the girls conspiring made no sense – it was implausible that they would have deceived three experts, an investigator, the prosecutor and the court.
The chair of the appeals panel, Dana Kancírová, stated that the verdict was not based solely on conflicting accounts but on a broader evidentiary basis. She found no indication that the girls wished to take revenge on the man. She added that the delayed reporting could have been connected to a societal shift in understanding of this issue.
Source: Novinky.cz