Defence lawyers criticise prosecutor’s prison demands in Stavanger rape case

The defence lawyers for two 16-year-old boys charged with aggravated rape of a 15-year-old boy in Stavanger have criticised the prosecutor’s demand for prison sentences, arguing it violates fundamental principles of juvenile and criminal law, according to Dagbladet and NTB.

In closing arguments at Sør-Rogaland District Court on Wednesday, state prosecutor Birgitte Budal Løvlund requested six months’ unconditional imprisonment combined with a three-year youth sentence for one defendant, and four years’ imprisonment, with three years suspended, for the other.

The alleged rape took place over seven hours and was filmed and live-streamed on Snapchat, the prosecution says. The two boys are accused of subjecting the victim to violence, coercion, threats, and forcing him to perform sexual acts on himself, leading to the aggravated rape charge.

“Children should as a general rule not go to prison but receive youth punishment,” lawyers Verna Rege Nilssen and Maren Eide wrote in a joint statement. “That the prosecution nonetheless argues for prison appears as a failure to understand basic principles in child and criminal law.”

Prosecutor Løvlund rejected the criticism, saying the severity of the case calls for an unconditional response, as is the starting point for serious sexual offences even when the convicted person is under 18.