He made an Alford Plea. He didn't admit guilt, just admitting that a jury would find him guilty based on evidence. Reading another article on the issue since this one is paywalled I'm 95% sure the victims are from the Somali community that he knew already and potentially even extended or closer family members.
According to the article He has been repeatedly raping the same 2 girls over and over and over again.
He raped them repeatedly over a period long enough that both him and one of the girl had a birthday.
His age was 14 and then 15 during the duration in which the rapes occurred.
The younger girl was 4 and then later on 5 during the duration of the crimes.
The older girl was 9 throughout all the rapes.
It could be family, but it could also be a babysitter, or a neighbor, or he was the poolboy, or any of various situations that give him regular access to the girls.
TLDR this is a cultural issue. We shouldn't be so quick to judge other cultures with our own biased norms and punish things that were considered more acceptable in other communities.
The parents of the victims do not believe so and have testified that their girls went from happy and outgoing into traumatized and withdrawn wrecks. With irrecoverable harm.
The court just decided on its own to offer this guy a deal where he gets a slap on the wrist for many many counts of child rape.
30 years of probation, 6 months prison, no criminal record, no sex offender registration.
That the plea deal was specifically the kind that specified that "he will almost certainly be found guilty if there was a trial" yet was still so generous to him is beyond the pale. As such a plea deal should be more severe in punishment than those where it is unclear who would win.
www.theguardian.com
