The commissioner for children’s rights has welcomed the supreme court decision to double the jail sentence of 39-year-old teacher who had an affair with his 15-year-old pupil, but said that even the second sentence was insufficient for such a serious crime.
“I believe the sentence should have been even stricter,” Leda Koursoumba told the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday. “Court sentences must send the message that neither society nor the state tolerates such acts.”
In January, the teacher was jailed for a year but following an appeal by the attorney-general the supreme court increased his sentence to two years earlier this month.
The man had been appointed a few years ago to the school where he met the girl on whose initiative they developed a relationship.
The case was reported to the police after the 39-year-old confided in a social worker at the school. A criminal court sentenced the man to a year in jail but the sentence was deemed inadequate by the state, which filed an appeal.
In its decision, the supreme court noted that even if a relationship between an adult and a minor was consensual, it did not reduce the severity of the offence.
During the appeal hearings, state attorney Christia Kithreotou, argued that despite recognising the seriousness of the offences, the criminal court had mainly taken into account the mitigating factors of the case, such as the absence of violence, the fact that he was the father of underage children, and his clean criminal record.
Kithreotou said another aggravating factor which should been taken into account was the possibility of the development of an emotional dependence that could lead to the exploitation of the victim.
“The distinction made in this case, compared with other similar cases … showed that the one year jail sentence is not a sufficient punishment for the perpetrator. The penalty in such cases should be substantially greater,” she concluded.
Koursoumba said that new legislation, passed in 2015, did not recognise consent as a defence, nor claims that the perpetrator did not know the minor’s age.
“It is the responsibility of the adult not to bring the minor to this position, let alone in the particular case in which the teacher was twice the age of the student.”
Koursoumba said the rising trend in such incidents was due to the fact that victims now reported sexual abuse more easily than in the past.
“Sexual abuse is the worst form of crime against children, thus courts have to be very careful in their decisions and impose exemplary sentences,” she said.
