A 19-year-old man raped two girls under the age of 16. He did not consider his act a crime, because he and the girls were only a little over 4 years apart in age.
The Kymenlaakso district court initially sentenced the man to 2.5 years in prison. Jarmo Sipilä
Janne Sakari Julian Lipponen22, raped two underage girls in one month. The acts took place in the fall of 2021. The victims were 14 and 15 years old at the time. Lipponen was 19 years old.
The 15-year-old girl met Lipponen at the Kotka market on Saturday, October 2, 2021. At the end of the evening, Lipponen asked the girl over. He assured that “nothing bad” would happen in the apartment and that the girl should not be afraid.
In the apartment, Lipponen led the girl to his bed. Without asking more, he undressed and raped the girl. The connection was unprotected. The frightened girl was unable to defend herself or express her will.
Four weeks later, Lipponen arrived uninvited to a house party for minors at a private apartment in Kotka. He went next to a 14-year-old girl who was sleeping on the bed and was unwell and raped her.
After both acts, Lipponen had “leaked” or spread his acts to the third young person. In addition, he had commented on the appearance of both girls, saying that they are good-looking for 15-year-olds.
In court, however, Lipponen claimed that he thought the girls had already turned 16.
Both “youth”
When the sexual crimes were dealt with in the Kymenlaakso district court, Lipponen denied having committed the crimes. He didn’t think the age difference of a good 4 years was big, because all the participants were “youth”.
Lipponen claimed that the 15-year-old girl had actively participated in sexual acts and that the girl could have also left the situation if she wanted to.
The district court found that Lipponen had taken advantage of the girl’s defenselessness and subjected her to sexual intercourse.
The district court was on the same lines with the second charge. It considered that the intoxicated 14-year-old girl has not been able to express her will or defend herself. In addition, the court stated that as an adult, Lipponen must also have understood this.
The Court of Appeal increased
The Court of Appeal of Eastern Finland issued a decision in the case on August 15, 2024. Henri Kärkkäinen
The Kymenlaakso district court sentenced Lipponen to a combined 2.5 years in prison for two counts of rape and two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
The district court ordered that Lipponen should compensate both of his victims 4,000 euros for the suffering caused by the crime, as well as 1,500 euros for the other victim for temporary psychological harm.
Lipponen appealed the sentence to the Court of Appeal, demanding that the charges be dismissed or that the punishment and damages be reduced in any case.
It was the other way around. The Court of Appeal of Eastern Finland considered it an aggravating circumstance that similar crimes had occurred within less than a month.
It sentenced the now 22-year-old Lipponen to a prison sentence of 2 years and 10 months.
The case was resolved by two appeals court advisors and one assessor. The assessor left a dissenting opinion on the matter. He would have dismissed both rape charges due to insufficient evidence.
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