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The assailant was the son of a family friend, and the two would often play together, which is when the assaults occurred. According to the sentencing statement, the girl would sit on the teenage boy’s lap as they played computer games, and on several occasions he would touch her between her legs, over her clothes. The statement says his hand was “cupped” when he assaulted her.

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The girl eventually confided in her parents after two years of abuse. The two families initially tried to work the situation out privately, with the boy at first denying his actions and then admitting them. However, when it appeared he was backtracking, the girl’s family contacted police.

(The Washington Post generally does not identify those convicted of crimes that were committed when they were minors.)

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Although he was found guilty of sexual assault and the judge acknowledged that the actions were not “spontaneous,” the court “considered the offence to be the result of an entirely inappropriate curiosity of an emotionally naive teenager rather than for the purpose of sexual gratification.” The statement goes on to say that “the accused had appeared both noticeably immature and socially awkward.”

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Several factors contributed to the decision to grant him an absolute discharge. The judge reasoned that the perpetrator was young and that this was his first offense; that “he had suffered considerable opprobrium” due to the case and it had a negative impact on his university studies; and that the judge did not believe he would do something like this again.

The document also says that “the accused had suffered seizures and had been diagnosed with epilepsy” since the abuse was brought to light.

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The statement says the girl’s family “held no ill will against the accused’s family,” but they were distraught by the decision.

“This won’t be something for her that goes away,” the victim’s mother told Scottish outlet STV News. “She’s very aware of it, and she’s been very upset by it.”

According to Scottish law, an absolute discharge may be granted if the person convicted had previously demonstrated good character or was very young or very old. Because of the ruling, the 18-year-old dental student will not appear on a sex-offender registry, and his guilty verdict will not be recorded as a conviction.

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“How is that justice?” the girl’s mother asked STV, which did not name the family members to protect their identities. “How does this teach anything to anybody that’s committing this crime?”

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“My idea isn’t that he gets strung up and we throw him in prison and we lock the key away, but this is what the sex offenders register is for. It’s to protect children,” she said.

The victim’s family also told STV that they think the perpetrator’s middle-class background and career prospects played a role in the decision.

The girl’s family had hoped to appeal the court’s decision to the Crown Office, Scotland’s prosecution service. The office can appeal “unduly lenient” sentences that fall outside what a judge could have reasonably imposed, although the Scottish appeals court has set a high legal bar for doing so. The office ultimately declined to take the case following a report submitted by the judge, Gerard Sinclair, that was not published or made available to the victim’s family, according to STV. The sentencing statement outlining the initial judgment was released publicly Wednesday.

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“Following full and careful consideration to all the facts and circumstances, Crown Counsel instructed that there should be no appeal against sentence in this case,” a spokesman for the Crown Office told The Post in a statement. “The reasons for this have been explained to the family. We would be happy to offer the family a meeting to answer any further questions they may have.”

The family hopes to write to Lord Advocate James Wolffe, who leads the office, asking him to reconsider, STV reported.

A spokesman for the law firm representing the perpetrator said in a statement to The Post that “over the past few days he has received a number of serious threats on social media,” which have been reported to Scottish police. His family has “engaged extensively with Social Services since July, including actively seeking and attending counseling services,” the spokesman added. The statement said the teenager’s family has “no wish to cause further upset to the victim’s family.”

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Not all Scottish officials are pleased with the outcome.

“I have spoken to the family, and the facts of this case are deeply troubling and deeply affecting,” Scotland’s Conservative Party shadow justice secretary, Liam Kerr, told The Post in a statement.

“It’s certainly a surprising sentence from my point of view,” he said. “I think it would certainly help in this case and in many others if there was greater understanding about why the decisions are taken.”

In the sentencing statement, the judge said, “It was fortunate that the complainer appeared to have suffered no injury or long lasting effects.” But the ordeal has left the girl and her family reeling — and lacking faith in the justice system.

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“Going to the police and dragging the family through the court and dragging my daughter to a police station and giving evidence and going to court and giving evidence for two hours and her crying at night time and her wondering why all this has happened,” the victim’s mother told STV. “What good has it done?”