An appeal court in Sweden has dropped rape charges on a 27-year-old man because the 13-year-old girl that was accusing him of sexual assault has a "well-developed" body.
Two courts, Västmanland District Court and Svea Court of Appeal, have dismissed the charges after watching police interviews with the teenager. The councils came to the conclusion that she has a post-pubecent body and doesn't carry herself the way average 13-year-old girls do, according to News.com.Au.
The benefit of the doubt was ultimately given to the man on the ruling that he could not have known the girl was only 13. Swedish law states that it is illegal for an adult to have sex with anyone younger than 15 years old.
The two met each other in the Swedish city of Västerås in a park in 2014. The girl was a homeless runaway with no money or cell phone at the time
The man acknowledged that he took the girl back to his apartment and they had sex after she accepted his invitation to follow him home "for a drink." He was arrested in April and charged with statutory rape.
Göran Landerdahl, the girl's lawyer, argued that the man could have simply asked how old she. Landerdahl plans to take the case to the Swedish Supreme Court.
