What credibility can be given to the testimony of a 9 year old child? It is partly on this point that the Neuchâtel Criminal Court will have to position itself. This Tuesday, the cantonal court heard a man accused of raping his ex-partner and his daughter, as well as having subjected his child to all kinds of abuse. Sentenced last September by the regional court of Littoral and Val-de-Travers, the defendant appealed against his 12-year prison sentence, as well as expulsion from Swiss territory for 15 years.
As in the first instance, much of the debate focused on the child’s story. Aged 9 at the time of her father’s arrest, this young girl would have, from the age of 6, suffered recurrent rapes, both vaginally and anally. When she screamed, her father then placed a cushion on her head, causing her to faint several times due to suffocation and pain.
“She wants to destroy me”
Acts denied by the accused who explains that he is the victim of personal revenge on the part of the mother. His ex-partner not having digested the fact that he had started a new life with someone else. Comments supported by his lawyer who speaks of parental alienation. The mother would have formatted her daughter’s brain to charge the father. In his pleading, he notably pointed out several inconsistencies in the child’s testimony, such as his account of a fellatio on his knees, while his father stood. A situation deemed impossible given the size of the protagonists. For the defense, the girl would therefore not have experienced what she says, but would have seen it in pornographic films. She therefore calls on the court to acquit her client.
“Watching a film cannot describe the consistency and smell of semen”
For the plaintiffs’ lawyer and the public prosecutor, the young girl’s story is, on the contrary, entirely credible. The latter being, for example, capable of giving morphological details on the sex of her father or even of describing the consistency and odor of his sperm. In addition, a RHNe medical report carried out in 2021 on the young victim concluded that there was a morphological anomaly in her vagina. An anomaly which would most likely come from sexual abuse. For the plaintiffs’ lawyer and the public prosecutor, the sentence must therefore be confirmed.
The judgment in this case will be rendered in the coming days. /rgi
#Swiss
