Pedophile, 23, who raped 8-year-old sister during lockdown and gave her STD blames conviction on racism
A 23-year-old man was sentenced on Friday, February 12, by the Liege Correction Court in Belgium to six years in prison after he was found to have raped his 8-year-old sister. The rape was discovered when the girl showed symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease. The unnamed man blamed his conviction on racism.
According to reports, the crime took place between April and May 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown in Belgium. The defendant had returned to live with his mother. It was around this time that his eight-year-old sister developed symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease.
READ MORE
Child sexual abuse content floods internet as lockdown hinders quick removal, say experts
A doctor had also discovered that the victim had lesions indicating rape. All members of the family in confinement were tested to determine the origin of the sexually transmitted disease -- the analyses confirmed that only the brother was the carrier of the germs that transmitted the disease.
The defendant reportedly initially denied being a carrier because he did not feel the symptoms. However, a second analysis confirmed that he was a carrier of the sexually transmitted disease. The man was descrubed as violent and narcissistic according to reports and he maintained that the charges were leveld against him because of his skin color.
Belgium has been the center of criticism for its perceived permissiveness toward major child sexual exploitation scandals, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
An Amnesty International survey from 2019 found that one in two people in Belgium had been the victim of sexual violence (around 47 percent), while one in four young people (under 19 years old) had been a victim of rape (around 24 percent). One in two victims of sexual violence was first exposed to it before the age of 19 (48 percent).
According to Amnesty International, there was a significant increase compared to a similar survey carried out in 2014. Philippe Hensmans, the director of the Belgian French-speaking section of Amnesty International said that the figures indicated that the prevalence of rape had not decreased in five years, and may even indicate that it has increased. He also said that Belgium can and must do better to "stem this scourge."
The survey also found that young people lacked benchmarks when it came to sexuality. Among young people between 15 and 25 years of age, a third of those questioned thought that it was normal to insist on having sex and that one cannot talk about rape if a person does not explicitly say "no." Moreover, only 53 percent are aware that rape of a partner is sexual assault which is punishable by imprisonment.
The survey also found that 20 percent of men questioned think that women like to be forced and that violence is sexually exciting for them. 39 percent of men surveyed believe that when it comes to filing a complaint for rape, women accuse falsely.
The survey also found that victims believe impunity of perpetrators is favored -- only 14 percent of women who have lodged complaints for acts of sexual violence were satisfied with their approach. Hensmans said, "These assertions are to be compared with statistics from the Ministry of Justice showing that, in 53% of cases, rape cases are closed. As evidenced by 68% of those questioned, we believe that this phenomenon seriously favors the impunity of those responsible for rape. This is why we call on all the competent authorities to take measures to fight against the impunity of the perpetrators of rape and to improve the care of victims throughout the procedure."