Zug,16.04.2018

37-year-old Serbian national given suspended sentence only

A ruling at the Zug supreme court upheld an earlier ruling of the Zug criminal court in relation to a 37-year-old Serbian national resident in Baar, who had been given a 36-month suspended sentence despite having had sex with a 12-year-old girl.

When the offender was asked by judges at the Zug supreme court (photograph) whether he had had sex with the mentally handicapped daughter of his then partner on the night of 31January 2016, he said he could not remember.

When it was put to him that traces of his sperm had been found on her bed sheets, he said this had been a result of his previously having had sex with her mother. He denied he had repeatedly had sex with the girl, and he repeatedly insisted he could not remember what had happened, his memory having faded in the 363 days he had already spent in custody.

Nevertheless, he was convicted of repeatedly having engaged in sexual activity with an under-age girl and given a three-year suspended sentence, the judges taking into account the one-year period he had already spent in jail. Furthermore, he was ordered to pay CHF 5,000, plus interest, in compensation to his victim.

Commenting on the case, judges said that, on account of her mental handicap, the victim had not been able to give detailed account of what had happened to her, but there was no doubt the offender had had sex with her, on two occasions on her bed and on another occasion in the living room.

While the prosecution had called for a sentence of four years, the maximum permissible being five, judges pointed out the offender suffered from a psychological disorder resulting in a diminishment in the level of his intelligence, hence at the time he committed the offences he was incapable of understanding the wrongfulness of his actions and thereby was not fully criminally liable. While the judges ruled the offender had used his victim in a reprehensible way to satisfy his desires, since the latter suffered from a mental handicap, the consequences were not as serious as they otherwise would have been.