Over four years in prison Zurich High Court criticizes "lenient sentence" for rapist

A family man was convicted of raping a girl. The High Court would have almost doubled the sentence of the lower court if it had had the opportunity.

A family man was sentenced to 51 months' imprisonment by the Winterthur district court for raping a girl. The public prosecutor's office accepted this sentence, but the Zurich High Court clearly criticized the length of the sentence, writes the "Landbote".

The accused recently stood before the high court. The incidents are said to have taken place between 2011 and 2015. The girl was 12 and not quite 16 years old at the time. The accused was a neighbor of the girl.

According to the indictment, sexual acts allegedly took place in the man's apartment, in the cellar and in his allotment garden. The first assault took place as follows: The accused contacted the girl by cell phone message. He is said to have asked her to come to his apartment.

There, the then 35-year-old was waiting for the girl naked in the bathtub. The girl refused to get into the bathtub with him. The man then allegedly got out of the bathtub and embraced her naked. She then felt his erect penis on her body.

In addition to other sexual acts, the most serious offense the man is accused of is rape and attempted rape.

Charges only followed years later

The girl, who is now 19 years old, only reported the alleged perpetrator in 2021. At that time, the young woman was undergoing psychiatric treatment. It was only during therapy that she really realized what had happened, she said at the first instance hearing.

The man denied any accusations and said that although the neighbor girl was friends with his son, he himself had never been alone with her once.

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A conversation between the victim and the man only took place in the summer of 2018. The now 19-year-old and the man had also exchanged cell phone numbers at this time. At her request, he brought her cigarettes and lent her money. "We then got closer", says the accused. "We kissed on two occasions," he explains. And: "We didn't have sex." Before the summer of 2018, the accused never claims to have been in contact with the girl by phone.

The defense lawyer denies that the messages came from her client

A chat history from 2015 contradicts this statement. The man wrote under a pseudonym. The two are said to have spoken in the chat history. "Keller? Just to see you" or "My heart" were among the things he wrote. However, the defense lawyer denied in her plea that the messages came from her client. The messages had not been found when his cell phone was analyzed.

The defense lawyer questioned the credibility of the private plaintiff's statements. She argued that the plaintiff had said very little about herself during the interviews and had given stereotypical answers that were far removed from life. In addition, she had added new information several times during a second interrogation. The defense lawyer therefore demanded an acquittal for her client according to the principle of "in case of doubt for the accused".

The High Court questions the severity of the sentence

The High Court would have imposed a significantly higher sentence if it had had the opportunity to do so. The judges felt that the sentence imposed was "too lenient" and would have almost doubled it. This discrepancy between the courts shows the different views on the appropriateness of the sentence in this case.

The district court's decision was accepted by the prosecution, which means that it did not appeal against the sentence. Nevertheless, the high court's criticism remains, which points to possible future discussions about the appropriateness of sentences in similar cases.

This article was created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). All content derived from AI is verified by the editorial team.