A 29-year-old Bangladeshi man was sentenced to 5 years in prison after a fast-track trial in Brescia for raping a 10-year-old girl in the summer of 2024, who later became pregnant .
The incident occurred in a former hotel in Collio, Valtrompia, which was then a reception center for asylum seekers . The little girl, staying at the facility with her mother, had been taken to the hospital for severe abdominal pain. On the ward, doctors discovered she was pregnant.
The mother and daughter were then transferred to a protected facility, while the man was arrested after admitting the charges. Prosecutor Federica Ceschi had requested a six-year and eight-month prison sentence .
The preliminary hearing judge of the Brescia court reclassified the crime from sexual assault to sexual intercourse with a minor , and for this reason, the sentence for the 29-year-old was also less than the prosecutor's request. According to the Brescia judge , there was no violence, but the man nevertheless acted without the child, given her age, being capable of consent .
The difference in sentences between the two crimes is two years: from 5 to 10 years for sex with minors and 6 to 12 years for sexual assault on a minor.
Brescia's chief prosecutor, Francesco Prete, has announced that he will appeal the case because "the correct legal classification of the facts needs to be assessed."
The ruling has infuriated the Lega and Fratelli d'Italia parties. FdI announced it will request a ministerial inspection : Lombardy regional councilor Barbara Mazzali calls the decision "unacceptable" and the sentence "minimal" given the gravity of the facts . "It is legally and morally unacceptable to even suggest that consent occurred. A ten-year-old girl cannot, by definition, consent to sexual intercourse with an adult."
The League has announced its intention to change the laws that led to such a sentence: "The mere five-year sentence handed down to a person responsible for the atrocious and unspeakable violence against a child leaves me stunned," said MP Simona Bordonali . Back in November, when the prosecutor requested a six-year and eight-month sentence (with a reduction in the sentence due to the fast-track trial), Matteo Salvini reacted by calling the decision "appalling" and "unacceptable."
(Unioneonline)
