The court of appeal has imposed 5 years of actual imprisonment on a 39-year-old resident of Lviv region convicted of unlawful deprivation of liberty, kidnapping and rape of a woman in Zhovkva. Earlier, the court of first instance had released him from serving his sentence with a probationary period, but this decision was appealed by prosecutors of the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
As established by the court of first instance, at the end of April last year in Zhovkva the man abducted from a public transport stop a woman with whom he had previously had an intimate relationship. After work, the victim was waiting for a bus when a van belonging to her acquaintance stopped nearby. The man suggested they talk about getting back together, but after she refused he forcibly pushed her into the vehicle and drove off.
On the way to a wooded area he struck the woman in the face several times, and in the forest he raped the victim. Afterwards he drove her closer to home and let her go. That same evening the woman reported the incident to law enforcement.
In June this year, the court of first instance sentenced the man to 5 years’ imprisonment under Part 1 of Article 146 and Part 2 of Article 152 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, but immediately released him from serving the sentence with a 1-year probationary period and prohibited him from contacting the victim. Prosecutors considered such a punishment disproportionate to the gravity of the crime and appealed the verdict.
In their appeal, prosecutors stressed that the victim had systematically suffered psychological and physical abuse, as well as coercion and threats in the presence of her own children. In addition, the man had repeatedly broken the law: over several years he had been held administratively liable 11 times, including for drink-driving, causing a road traffic accident, minor hooliganism and disobeying the police.
There is also another indictment against this man pending before the same court, on charges of extorting 5,000 US dollars from another woman by threatening to distribute her intimate photos, and of assaulting a police officer during his arrest (Part 4 of Article 189, Part 2 of Article 345 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In that case his guilt has not yet been proven and the trial is ongoing.
Prosecutors argued that the numerous offences demonstrate the convicted man’s failure to draw appropriate conclusions from his behaviour, his continued unlawful conduct and the danger he poses to society, and therefore a suspended sentence is unacceptable and an actual custodial sentence is necessary.
The court of appeal agreed with the arguments of the prosecution, quashed the verdict in the part concerning the sentence imposed and delivered a new one – 5 years of actual imprisonment. The verdict has entered into legal force and the man remains in custody.