[Hurriyet Daily News] A Turkish court has sentenced a man, who initially faced a total of 150 years in prison for drugging and sexually abusing two 14-year-old girls and one 15-year-old girl after faking his ID, to 10 years in jail due to his "respectable attitude" at the hearings. The southeastern province of Diyarbakir's 6th Court of Serious Crimes first sentenced the 42-year-old man, identified only by the initials U.C., to 12 years in prison for committing the "the sexual harassment of a minor" and "depriving a minor of their freedom with a sexual aim." Even though the 12 years in prison was the lower limit for such crimes, the court reduced the man's punishment to 10 years on the grounds of his respectable behavior at the hearings.
The court acquitted him of charges of "providing drugs" and performing sexual acts with a third girl.
He was also sentenced to a total of 15 months in prison and a four-day punitive fine for "indecency" toward all the three victims, but the punishment was suspended on the grounds that the court ruled that the suspect would not commit the crimes again.
The three girls told their schoolteacher in 2014 that U.C. had taken them to his house to "teach English" before plying them with alcohol and marijuana, forcing them to watch porn and then sexually abusing them. He reportedly told the girls that he was a military officer, also possessing an officer uniform, a gun and bullets, in order to increase his credibility.