Reduced sentence demanded for sexual abuse against three underage girls

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

The sentence demanded for a man who allegedly drugged and sexually abused two 14-year-old girls and one 15-year-old girl has been reduced from 150 years to 10 years, on the grounds that the girls gave their consent. 

The three girls, identified only by their initials G.D., R.A. and N.K., told their schoolteacher in 2014 that the 42-year-old suspect, identified as U.Ç., had taken them to his house to teach English before plying them with alcohol and marijuana, making them watch porn, and sexually abusing them. 

Following an investigation, U.Ç. was arrested for “sexual harassment of a minor,” “depriving a person of their freedom,” “providing drugs,” “possessing a firearm and bullets,” and “making minors watch obscene publications.” According to these charges he originally faced a total of 150 years in jail. 

U.Ç. claimed that he was the victim in the case as he had told the girls his real name and it was actually they who tried to give him cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. He was released from jail before his trial after seven months on the grounds that long arrests are against the European Convention on Human Rights. 

In the latest hearing, the prosecutor demanded U.Ç.’s acquittal of the charges of drugging the girls and depriving them of their freedom, saying they had given their consent. 

The prosecutor also claimed that the 15-year-old girl had given her consent but U.Ç.’s acts against the other two girls amounted to sexual assault. He therefore demanded between 3.5 and 10 years of prison time, rather than the 150 years demanded in the initial indictment.