Six years in prison for raping his 9-year-old neighbor!

His neighbors’ children came over to play with his own. The father took the opportunity to rape a little girl, barely nine years old.

By pure chance, this young father, aged thirty-eight, involved in a case of paedophilia, has just been arrested. He appeared recently, under arrest, before the criminal division of the El Jadida Court of Appeal, charged with indecent assault with violence on a minor under the age of eighteen. In fact, he risked a sentence ranging from ten to twenty years’ imprisonment under the provisions of article 485 paragraph 2 of the penal code, which stipulates that “indecent assault committed or attempted with violence against a child under the age of eighteen, an incapacitated or disabled person, or a person known to have weak mental capacities, is punishable by ten to twenty years’ imprisonment”.

He was wandering around at night, just outside El Jadida’s bus station, when he caught the attention of police officers making their routine rounds. To check his identity, they asked him to show them his national identity card. Their suspicions were well-founded. In short, he was on file at police stations all over the country as a pedophile who had abused a nine-year-old girl. He was promptly arrested. Placed in police custody, he was subjected to interrogation.

The investigation revealed that he was the subject of a complaint filed by the victim’s parents with the Sidi Bouzid gendarmerie. According to the complaint, the crime took place in one of the douars of the Moulay Abdellah urban commune in the province of El Jadida.

In court, he confessed to his crime and asked the judges to forgive him, as he had not originally intended to touch her or the other children playing with his. Since renting his home next door to that of the victim’s parents, he has never touched a child.

“We are neighbors who respect each other and our children play together,” he explained to the court.

Unfortunately, when the three children of his neighbors, including the victim, came to his house to play with theirs, he didn’t know what had bitten him to commit this crime. At least, that’s what he told the court. Without knowing how or why, he led the little girl into a bedroom to sexually abuse her.

After deliberation, the court found him guilty but granted him mitigating circumstances. He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. A judgment that the victim’s family considered very lenient.