Prosecutors challenge reduced sentence in sexual assault case

Lithuania’s General Prosecutor’s Office has appealed to the Supreme Court of Lithuania against a decision reducing the sentence of a 37-year-old Vilnius resident convicted of sexual offences against nine victims, LRT reported.

The Lithuanian Court of Appeal reduced his prison sentence from 10 years and two months to eight years. Prosecutors are asking the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling and reinstate the first-instance court’s decision.

The case established that the man attacked girls and young women walking alone in Vilnius and other locations in 2022 and 2023. The victims were aged between 11 and 18.

In many cases, the man wore a medical mask, carried a knife or another sharp object, threatened the victims, forced them to accompany him to secluded places and demanded that they undress or expose their bodies. Some of the offences were not completed because the victims resisted, began shouting, escaped or received help from other people.

The man had previously been convicted of similar sexual offences against underage victims and had served a lengthy prison sentence. He committed most of the new offences near the end of that sentence, after being allowed to resocialise in the community.

The first-instance court convicted him of sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, attempted robbery and causing minor mental health impairment to the victims. It imposed a combined sentence of 10 years and two months and classified him as a dangerous recidivist.

In May, the Court of Appeal reclassified some of the offences under different provisions of the Criminal Code, reduced the sentence to eight years and removed his classification as a dangerous recidivist. The man is currently serving his sentence in a prison.