In Kortrijk, Belgium, near the border with France, a 14-year-old girl was raped several times by a group of boys, the Belgian Public Prosecution Service confirms. The arrested suspects are between the ages of 11 and 16.
The victim was allegedly lured by her own 14-year-old boyfriend to a forest where other boys were waiting for her. The 14-year-old boy’s lawyer tells this site that her client ‘does not have the profile of a rapist’. “He wants the truth to come to light.”
‘Traumatizing’
During the Easter holidays, the girl was unsuspectingly lured to the Kabouterbos in Kortrijk. This is a small forest that is especially popular with mountain bikers and hikers. It is not clear if her boyfriend would have ‘offered’ her, or if something else happened in the woods that was beyond his control.
The boy denies that everything happened as is now reported in the Belgian media based on the judiciary, says his lawyer Nur Demirtas. She doesn’t believe her client is capable of something like that. For the 14-year-old boy, his arrest is ‘traumatizing’. “This is also very difficult for his parents, wealthy people who have tried to give their son a good upbringing. They don’t understand how this could have happened.”
The events in the forest spanned a period of about three days, the Belgian newspaper reports The last news based on anonymous sources. It is not clear whether the victim was held captive all this time. The teenager, who eventually came forward with her story herself, is now receiving psychological guidance.
Disgust
In Belgium, people are reacting with horror to the gang rape, which happened during the Easter holidays, but has only now come to public attention. The Belgian Public Prosecution Service, specifically the West Flanders public prosecutor’s office, confirms the facts, but is cautious in its comments. “This is a particularly delicate file with only underage suspects,” says spokeswoman Griet De Perst. “They have all been identified, arrested and are under the supervision of the juvenile judge.”
Some suspects have now been placed in closed institutions. Other (safety) measures have been taken for the rest. Research must now show how great the individual involvement of young people is. The suspects now seem to be pointing the finger at each other, writes The newspapaer. For example, the youngest suspect, a boy of barely 11 years old, would have ‘only’ been a lookout, but he would not have known what was happening in front of him.
A 16-year-old suspect with Somali nationality is now asking to redo the interrogation. “Due to the language barrier, he said things that are not consistent with how he meant them,” his lawyer Kelly De Caluwé said. The newspapaer. “For me he is not a rapist. Although he realizes that something very wrong has happened.” De Caluwé speaks of ‘horrible facts’. “I have never experienced this in my career. And the suspects are very young indeed. Not only the juvenile judge but society as a whole must ask itself how we are going to combat such cases.”
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Tags: Boyfriend takes girl forest Belgium raped group minors
 takes girl (14) to a forest in Belgium, where she is raped by a group of minors | Abroad){kind=link}