Since April 2021, any sexual relationship between an adult and a minor under 15 years of age is punishable by 20 years of criminal imprisonment.
It was the Sarah affair, a fictitious name given to an 11-year-old girl who had sexual relations with a 28-year-old man, which led to the change in the law on the age of non-consent for minors.
More than a year after his attacker was sentenced to eight years in prison, the case will be judged on appeal from this Tuesday before the Versailles Assize Court.
In November 2022, when reading the verdict rendered after three days of trial behind closed doors, the president of the Val-d'Oise criminal court declared that the accused, aged 28 at the time of the facts, had “ abused the vulnerability” of the victim “to achieve immediate satisfaction of (his) desires and (his) sexual excitement” and could not ignore the young girl’s 11th birthday.
Also read: How the Sarah affair contributed to setting the threshold for sexual consent at 15
Despite her physical appearance, “her real age is very quickly perceptible when speaking with her,” the magistrate underlined.
“The court considers that the sexual acts were committed by moral constraint and by surprise”, the definition of rape, the magistrate concluded.
The victim, at “11 years and 10 months, did not have sufficient maturity or discernment to consent to sexual relations”.
The man was sentenced to eight years in prison and incarcerated, a decision slightly short of the 10 years required.
He was also banned from working with children for ten years.
He immediately appealed.
Initially prosecuted for “sexual assault”
In April 2017, the schoolgirl had chatted in a park near her home in Montmagny (Val-d'Oise) with this man who had already approached her two weeks earlier.
A temporary worker by profession, father of a nine-year-old child, the latter had invited him to follow her into his building.
Two sexual acts, without physical violence, then took place in the common areas and the man's apartment.
As she left the building, she called her mother, telling her that she had been raped.
This affair became emblematic after the controversy sparked by the first qualifications.
The man was initially prosecuted for “sexual assault” before an investigation was opened for “rape of a minor”.
A debate on the age of consent of minors then began, leading in April 2021 to the promulgation of a new law.
Since then, an adult cannot rely on the sexual consent of a minor if he or she is under 15 years old, or under 18 years old in the case of incest.
As in the first instance, the man will however be judged according to the old law, the more severe criminal law not being retroactive.
The verdict is due to be delivered on Friday.