The then-18-year-old man, Adal, was arrested and charged after investigators discovered that he allegedly had se* with a 13-year-old girl he met on social media. The 18-year-old man communicated with the child for two months before luring her to a hotel room to have inter-ourse. Adal claimed that he went home after having se* with the girl and then headed to a nearby mosque to pray. He was arrested a week after the child confided in a classmate about their rendezvous. It was then that he attempted to justify his actions by blaming the girl and citing his Islamic education.
Per reports, when the 18-year-old man was arrested, he acted confused and claimed that he had no idea it was illegal to have se* with 13-year-old girls. He even told police that he was educated in a madrassa, which is an Islamic school, claiming that the strict religious teaching caused him to believe that females were inferior and created for the se-ual fulfillment of men. In other interviews with psychologists, Adal claimed he had been taught in his school that women are no more worthy than a lollipop that has been dropped on the ground.
Adal also told Judge Stokes that he can’t be held criminally liable because he thought having se* with children was permissible. What no one expected was for the judge to accept his justification and allow him to walk free. Although Adal was found guilty of crimes that would typically receive 4 to 7 years in prison, Judge Stokes allowed him to walk out of the courtroom with just 9-months in a youth center. The judge defended his decision to release the convicted se* offender, claiming that jail time might cause him more damage than good. “It is not too far to say that he may not have known that having se* with a 13-year-old girl was illegal,” defence lawyer Leake said.
Even though Judge Stokes initially stated that Adal must have known it was illegal to have se* with a child unless he was going round with his eyes shut, he eventually sided with the defendant. Subsequently, Adal openly blamed his child victim, arguing that he had been tempted by her after they began chatting online. He claimed that the girl lured him through private messages on Facebook before texting him on his phone, which ultimately led to him booking a hotel room. Describing Adal, the judge said: “He’s had an unusual education, certainly in terms of the se-ual education provided. Comparing women to lollipops is a very curious way of teaching young men about se*.”
