Appeal court gives stepfather a suspended six-month sentence

Iceland’s Court of Appeal has sentenced a man to six months in prison, suspended for two years, for repeatedly threatening his stepdaughter’s life, health and welfare over a two-year period, mbl.is reported. The court raised the compensation payable to the girl to 1.5 million Icelandic krónur.

Reykjanes District Court had sentenced the man to 10 months in prison without suspension and ordered him to pay 1.25 million krónur in compensation in October last year.

The man and the girl’s mother moved to Iceland in 2021, and the girl joined them the following year. The household also included the man’s mother, his brother and his brother’s girlfriend.

Court documents said the girl had experienced trauma and struggled with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. The case began in late August 2024, when child protection services received an anonymous report. The girl was placed in an emergency shelter the next day, and child protection authorities then asked police to investigate.

The court considered an incident in August 2024 in which the girl returned home late. According to her account, the man pulled her hair and spat in her face after finding messages on her phone with her girlfriend, whom her parents had forbidden her to meet. When she went to the bathroom to clean herself, he followed and hit her hard in the back.

The Court of Appeal found that the man had repeatedly spoken to the girl in a degrading way, shouted at her, threatened once to beat her and repeatedly threatened her with a raised fist. It also found that he had damaged her mobile phone, spat in her face, hit her back, grabbed her upper arm and pulled her hair.

The man was acquitted of other charges on which the district court had convicted him. The appeal court found it unproven that he had threatened to cut and kill the girl. It also found no basis to convict him over an alleged threat to send her to her biological father abroad, as it was not established that the man knew the father was abusive.

The court said there was no evidence the man had inspected the girl’s phone without permission. It did not convict him over tearing her trousers, as evidence indicated the incident occurred outside the period covered by the charges. The court also said it was not material whether he had forbidden her from meeting her girlfriend, pushed her shoulder or pulled her sweater.