Father-in-law 'gives' son-in-law 3 years suspended sentence after wedding

A few months after his daughter's wedding, the father-in-law filed a complaint against his son-in-law for having sex with a child.

According to the verdict of the People's Court of Nga Nam town, Soc Trang province, Nguyen Hong T. (born 1996, in Nga Nam, Soc Trang) and Vo Cat P. (born September 28, 2000) were married by their parents in early June 2016.

After living together as husband and wife for more than 4 months, conflicts arose. On October 6, 2016, P. left and returned to his parents' house.

When his daughter returned home for nearly a month, Mr. Vo Van L. (born in 1963), P.'s biological father, went to the police to report and requested criminal proceedings against his son-in-law for having sexual intercourse with a child.

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After the police got involved, T. submitted a request for an age assessment for his wife because he believed that at the time of the wedding, P. was 16 years old. However, the investigation agency did not accept T.'s request for an age assessment.

During the investigation, the police proved that T. had had sexual intercourse with P. many times when she was under 16 years old, so they decided to prosecute the case and prosecute T. for the crime of "having sexual intercourse with a minor", according to the provisions of Point a, Clause 2, Article 115 of the Penal Code.

After T. was prosecuted, his family paid 5 million VND to the Civil Judgment Enforcement Department to partially compensate for the damage to honor, dignity, and reputation of the victim P.

On P.'s side, she and her biological father requested that T. compensate for her honor and dignity according to the law and requested a legal settlement for the amount of gold that defendant T.'s family gave at the time of the wedding, which was 14 taels of 24k gold.

Groom gets 3 years suspended sentence

At the first instance trial, defendant T. admitted that after the wedding, he had sexual intercourse with P. every day. The defendant asked for a reduced sentence and a suspended sentence because he was the main breadwinner in the family.

The defendant's defense attorney argued that T.'s crime stemmed from his early marriage, and that the agreement between the two families to arrange a wedding ceremony created favorable conditions for the defendant and the victim to have sexual intercourse.

The defendant lives in a rural area, has a low level of education, and has limited knowledge of the law..., and requests the panel of judges to consider giving the defendant a suspended sentence.

Also at court, P. and the girl's legal representative requested that T. be held criminally responsible and asked for a reduced sentence for the defendant.

After consideration, the panel of judges concluded that T.'s actions constituted the crime of having sexual intercourse with a child. Although the defendant's father affirmed that when he asked for P.'s hand in marriage for his son, he asked P.'s age and was told by P.'s parents that P. was 18 years old. However, there was no other evidence to prove that P. had another date of birth, so there was no basis to request an expert assessment of the victim's age.

The panel of judges also held that the cause of the defendant's criminal behavior stemmed from the arrangement of both parents, so T.'s sexual intercourse with P. was due to indirect intentional fault, and both parents were also partly at fault in this case.

On the other hand, the defendant has a good personal history and many mitigating circumstances, so the panel sentenced the defendant to 3 years in prison, but suspended the sentence; forced the defendant to compensate P. for damage to honor and dignity in the amount of more than 10 million VND.

Considering that the amount of gold for the wedding day, 14 taels of 24k gold, is not related to this case, the panel of judges did not consider it.

According to Vietnamnet