The Court of Appeal for Western Sweden acquits a 77-year-old man of having let a close girl, who was two years old at the time, touch the man’s penis while he was urinating. It was Today’s Law first to report on.
During an interrogation, the man must state that it was about “a shorter touch” and that she poked with a finger.
The man who has been charged with several cases of sexual abuse against the girl is said to have put his hand inside her panties and touched the girl’s genitals on another occasion.
Acquitted in the Court of Appeal
The 77-year-old was sentenced on all charges to two years and two months in prison by the Uddevalla district court. But now completely acquitted by a dissenting appeals court.
The Court of Appeal for Western Sweden considers that the girl’s touch of the man’s genitals was “fleeting”, and that based on the circumstances surrounding the incident, it is not possible to conclude that the touch had “a tangible sexual meaning”.
The court therefore judges that it is not a matter of sexual abuse of children and acquits the man on that charge.
“The weighted value of the evidence thus does not reach the requirement set for a conviction. The prosecution in this part must therefore be dismissed.”, writes the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal disagreed
One of the legal judges in the case did not share the Court of Appeal’s assessment and wanted to convict the man on the charge. She believes that it is proven that it was a question of a touch that had such a duration that it was not a question of a “fleeting touch”.
“Like the district court, I believe that with regard to the circumstances surrounding the act, it is clear that the touch had a clear sexual meaning,” she writes.
However, the man is sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for several other abuses against the child. At the same time, the Court of Appeal lowers the damages from SEK 230,000 to SEK 165,000.
The same judge as in the snippa case
The judge in the case is the same person who was convicted in the so-called snippa case where a man in his 50s was acquitted of charges of child rape. This is because the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden considered that it was unclear what the girl meant by the word “snip”.
TV4 Nyheterna has tried to reach the judge in the case for a comment.