Man with erectile dysfunction cleared of rape charges

Man with erectile dysfunction cleared of rape charges

AUGUST 10, 2012 07:52

“If the defendant was advanced in age and had symptoms of erectile dysfunction, a conviction shall not be made unless supported by direct evidence.” The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court`s verdict of not guilty given to a 71-year-old man on the charge of sexual assault of a youth. The ruling cleared the man of the allegation that he violated the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes and the Protection of Victims and the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse. With the latest judgment, he was cleared of the charge of sexually molesting and repeatedly assaulting a 9-year-old girl until she turned 15. The story that prosecutors had was that in 2004, a 9-year-old girl, who is now 17, enjoyed a good friendship with the owner of an orchard where her parents started working from 1996. Her father was physically disabled while her mother had mental disabilities. The owner treated the girl nicely to get closer to her. As she grew older, he supposedly sexually attacked her. From 2009, when she was 15, to 2010, he allegedly raped her three times. A prosecutor said, “Since the defendant took advantage of the disabilities of the victim’s parents and repeatedly committed crimes, he might attempt sexual assault on the girl again.” Yet prosecutors missed out on a key loophole: the man had long suffered from diabetes. “Raping her would have been impossible because I hadn`t had an erection over the past 15 years,” he said. Overall, about 40 to 50 percent of diabetics suffer from erectile dysfunction. His medical record also said he began receiving treatment for diabetes from 1995. Since January last year, he started to get tests on his erectile dysfunction at a university hospital using Cialis, an erection inducer, but still could not get an erection. A doctor at the hospital said, “On the erection degrees of one to four, his case is one. He has a serious type of erectile dysfunction that makes it impossible for him to insert his penis in a vagina.” This was the diagnosis given after the man got an ultrasound and took an erection inducer, and came just a year after the last rape on the girl allegedly happened in January 2010. The Justice Ministry took note of this evidence and the Supreme Court confirmed the original verdict that said, “It would have been impossible for the defendant to have an erection strong enough to insert in the vagina and maintain it for five minutes since he began to feel extreme sexual desire (enough to rape a girl).” The Supreme Court added, “The only evidence, the victim’s statements, shall not be seen as evidentiary proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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