Transcarpathian regional prosecutorʼs office appealed the court verdict in the case of the rape of a 14-year-old girl.
This was reported in the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office (PGO).
The prosecutorʼs office demands that the verdict of the Volovets district court of Transcarpathian region be annulled and that the appellate court adopt a new verdict. Also, the High Council of Justice will check the judge Oksana Sofilkanych, who considered the case.
What is it about?
A 14-year-old girl was raped on August 24, 2021. Her grandmother turned to the police in September. One 14-year-old and two 15-year-old teenagers, fellow villagers of the victim, were involved in this. They first lured the girl to the yard of one of the teenagers, and then to the basement. The girl had been friends with them for a long time, so she agreed to go with them. After that, one of them hit the girl, and then they all raped her one by one. The teenagers filmed all this, and then uploaded it to the Internet and showed it to their classmates at school.
All three of boys pleaded guilty at trial. The sentence to the boys, who were released from punishment, caused outrage. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets took the case under his control.
They will also analyze the activities of the local child protection service, whose employee represented the girlʼs interests in court. After all, as it turned out, the mother of one of the boys also works in this service, so there are doubts about the impartiality and professionalism of representing the girlʼs interests. Also, this service gave positive characteristics to the rapists, which influenced the softening of the sentence. Currently, the sentence, in accordance with the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code, has not entered into force.