Woman who had sexual relationship with a minor in north Cyprus sentenced to 3 years in prison

A 35-year old Turkish woman who had sex with an underage boy in exchange for money in Kyrenia has been sentenced to 3 years in prison by a north Cyprus court.

The sentence was delivered by the Kyrenia High Criminal Court on Wednesday, Dec., 13.

The incident happened in Alsancak, Kyrenia between the period of April and September 2023 but came to the notice of the police on Sept. 29.

The suspect named only as ES, 35, a Turkish national was arrested following a complaint after she was found to have had sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old boy in exchange for money.

She was taken to court on charges of "Sexual Abuse of a Child Under 16 Years Old".

Police stated that the suspect had sexual intercourse with the boy for 1800 TL.

The woman told the court that she "did not know the age of the child".

Delivering judgement, the judge stated that the defendant had sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old child three times during the dates in question and received 1800 TL as gain.

Noting that the age difference between the defendant and the child was at the mother-child level, the Judge explained that they considered both this issue and the fact that she had sex with the child 3 times for the purpose of earning money as an aggravating factor against her.

The judge stated that they considered the case in her favor for accepting the charges and did not require the child to be heard in court.

The judge explained that when determining the sentence for the defendant, the type and prevalence of the crime committed should be taken into consideration.

The judge Sağer stated that they took the Activity Reports published by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Court into consideration as judicial notice and observed that there has been a steady and serious increase in sexual crimes in recent years.

Looking at the last 10-year period in the light of the latest published data, the number of sexual crimes before the high criminal courts increased from 7 in 2013 to 15 in 2014, to 21 in 2015, and to 29 in 2016 and 2017. He said that it reached 19 in 2018, 33 in 2019, 38 in 2020, 36 in 2021 and 63 in 2022.

The judge stated that there was a 900 percent increase in the number of cases before the court regarding this type of crime compared to 10 years ago.

"Considering the population and size of our country, this increase rate is frightening and frightening," the judge said and announced that after evaluating all the facts, they sentenced the defendant to 3 years in prison.