A MAN who was jailed for ten years for having sex with a 15-year-old girl who subsequently threw herself out of a third-storey window in Manama has lost his final appeal.
The teenager was still alive when she hit the ground on August 17, 2014 but was pronounced dead later that day.
The girl, who was seven months’ pregnant at the time of her death, was reportedly distraught when she found out that her lover was going to leave her.
Detectives suspected the policeman’s involvement after finding messages he had sent the girl on Facebook, according to sources.
He was then arrested and charged with having sex with a minor – equivalent to the charge of statutory rape.
However, he was never charged in connection with her suicide, and DNA evidence showed he was not the father of the unborn child.
The High Criminal Court in August 2015 found the policeman guilty based on his initial confession to prosecutors and jailed him for 10 years.
He had told the prosecutors he had befriended the girl on Facebook in 2012 and they had fallen in love.
“Then, one day in 2013 I picked her up from her home in Manama and I rented an apartment in Juffair where we had sex.”
During the trial, the policeman told the court the two only had consensual sex.
After his conviction by the High Criminal Court, the officer lodged an appeal at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court, which was rejected in October 2015.
A final appeal lodged by the 26-year-old defendant at Bahrain’s highest court, the Cassation Court, was kicked out yesterday.
“The defendant confessed to committing the crime,” read the Cassation Court ruling.
“He never said that he confessed under duress and it was under his own will.
“The court trusts the evidence in the case and rejected the final appeal lodged by the defendant.”
The teenager’s parents, who earlier took the stand in court, said they were not even aware that their daughter was pregnant when she took her own life.
Defence lawyer Huda Saad, representing the officer, previously told judges that her client was not involved with the girl at the time of her death.
noorz@gdn.com.bh
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