“Mitigating circumstances” for Belgian

28 September 2007

BRUSSELS – The public prosecutor sees mitigating circumstances in the case of the 19-year-old Flemish boy being held in prison in Kentucky on paedophilia charges. The boy has been in prison since 4 August. He shares a cell with other prisoners who are also being held for trial.

The boy was arrested on charges of paedophilia. He came in contact with a girl in Harlan County Kentucky via the internet. She told him she was 16, but was in fact only 13.

When the young man travelled from Belgium to Kentucky to visit her, he met her in the cinema, where she was accompanied by her mother. The mother called sheriff Marvin Lipfird.

“In my eyes he is not a sexual predator, but by communicating in the way he did and asking certain things he has violated our laws on sex offences,” says sheriff Lipfird.

A jury will decide on Tuesday whether he is guilty of the charges. In the worst case he could be facing five years in prison. But public prosecutor Henry Johnson agrees there are mitigating circumstances. “This case does not involve rape or sexual abuse. There was no act of sexual contact and that will certainly weigh in his favour.”

Sheriff Lipfird, who arrested the boy, has received hundreds of emails from Belgium in the meantime, some containing death threats. He thinks the case has been blown out of proportion. “The jury will set this right,” he said.

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Subject: Belgian news