A Syrian migrant in Germany found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl and repeatedly masturbating in front of another 11-year-old girl he groomed on Snapchat has been jailed for four and a half years.
The 26-year-old defendant was convicted at the Ellwangen regional court on Friday in relation to crimes committed back in April last year.
The court held that the man from Syria had used the Snapchat messaging app, popular with the younger demographic, to initiate conversations with minors. One schoolgirl he spoke to on the app agreed to meet with him at a sports field near her home last spring where she was forced to have sexual intercourse without a condom.
At the trial, a key witness was the victim’s cousin whom the girl had spoken to about her fledgling relationship with the defendant and whom she walked to the sports field with.
The court heard how after the rape the victim tearfully confided in her cousin, telling her she had had sexual intercourse with the defendant but had been forced to and told him several times she didn’t want it.
The schoolgirl also told her cousin that the defendant had threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the assault.
“She was afraid to tell her parents,” the witness told the court.
When the defendant was confronted about the death threat by the cousin over the telephone, he dismissed it as a joke.
In a separate incident, the Syrian migrant was also convicted for his inappropriate relationship with another minor, an 11-year-old girl whom he invited to his apartment “to cuddle.” Both victims had met the man through Snapchat.
Once there, he masturbated in front of her several times.
The girl told her mother about the incident who then filed a police report.
The first victim had taken a photograph of the man, which was used by the police to identify the suspect and arrest him. A request for information was also sent to Snapchat, which provided his email address and full name.
“The verdict is a severe punishment because you have committed a grave injustice,” the presiding judge, Jochen Fleischer said during the sentencing hearing.
The defendant was handed three years and nine months for the rape of the 13-year-old victim, and one year and six months for the sexual abuse of children without physical contact in relation to the 11-year-old girl.
The court ordered for part of the sentences to run concurrently for a total prison sentence of four years and six months.