2023-07-14 17:16:00
Six years in prison: this is the sentence pronounced on Friday by the Brussels Court of Appeal against a 39-year-old man, convicted of rape.
In the first instance, Ricardo (it’s a pseudonym) was given a five-year probationary sentence for what exceeds four years of imprisonment. The prosecution, which had requested a nine-year prison sentence and five years of availability to the court for the enforcement of sentences, appealed against this judgment rendered on March 14.
It was then the first judgment rendered according to the new Sexual Penal Code, which came into force in June 2022, which gives a central place to the notion of consent. Ricardo had overruled the victim’s “no” during a sexual relationship that was initially consensual.
It was not the first time that he abused a young woman. He was in a state of legal recidivism. In 2015 and 2016, he was sentenced to four years respectively, suspended for three years and four years firm for rape of an adult. This past explains the severity of the sentence imposed on Friday.
“Without a condom, it’s dead!”: an “ordinary” rape judged according to the new Sexual Penal Code
A clearly formalized “no”
The facts dated from July 19, 2022. There was no question here of the shot of the stranger in a dark corner armed with a knife attacking his victim. They were seeing each other for the second time. They had met at Place Flagey, in Ixelles, from where they had joined the young woman’s kot. She was consenting to have sexual intercourse as long as it was protected. But Ricardo was not in possession of a condom.
She had nevertheless, at first, accepted a start of penetration but then changed her mind. She claimed to have clearly formalized her refusal with a “no”, adding that she no longer wanted to. He had then penetrated her again while she clenched her teeth and did not move to make her understand that she was not consenting.
Shortly after he left, he sent her a message that read “very sincerely sorry, good night”. The next day, the victim went to the Sexual Violence Treatment Center. Three months later, Ricardo was arrested. He had been placed under an arrest warrant, which led to the revocation of the electronic surveillance measure he had benefited from for his previous convictions. On Friday, he therefore appeared in detention.
The new Sexual Penal Code adopted after the modification of a key term
The rape was uncontested
Before the Court of Appeal, as before before the Criminal Court, Ricardo no longer contested the prevention of rape, since he realized that the young woman was no longer consenting when he acted.
The representative of the public prosecutor was opposed to a reprieve, believing in particular that the prospects of seeing him evolve with therapeutic follow-up were bleak. She had demanded the same sentence as at first instance: nine years’ imprisonment and five years’ availability to the TAP. The defense sought confirmation of the trial judgment.
In its judgment delivered on Friday, the Court of Appeal relied in particular on reports following the execution of Ricardo’s last conviction. They demonstrate “the lack of awareness that the person concerned has about the seriousness of his behavior towards the fairer sex and the need for strict and intense psychological monitoring in order to put a resolute end to it”.
The court considered that making the TAP available was not necessary insofar as Ricardo will have to prove, before this same TAP, that he can control his impulses and no longer represent a danger, in order to possibly obtain an adjustment of his sentence. .
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