Brno - If courts want to send children under 15 years of age into juvenile corrective institutions, they can do so only if the children commit really dangerous crimes.
And they must very carefully review all the aspects of the case and consider imposing protective care. Putting a child in a correctional facility is an extreme solution and a serious interference with the child's personal liberty.
The Supreme Court thus allowed the appeal of a girl sent by Ostava courts to an institution three years ago.
The reason? She was having an intercourse at the age of 14 with a boy of her age. Thus, she committed a statutory rape (the police have put off the prosecution as the girl was not criminally liable due to her age).
"This would have been a crime and the underage person committed it." This is the earliest verdict of the District Court from 2005.
The court also stated that the girl's behaviour shows serious deficiencies, her mother fails to raise her in a proper way. The girl keeps running away from home and skips school.
Nothing else would help
Ostrava District Court which dealt with the girl's appeal confirmed the verdict. "All the available less intense upbringing means have been exhausted and we can say that there is no hope they will lead to a success," the judges stated.
The girl's warden however appealed against it and turned to the Supreme Court. He says an underage person can only be sent to an institution for a socially dangerous deed.
"In this case, when the underage person is accused of having an intercourse at the age of 14 with a boy of her age, the "social danger" of her acting is not very high and we can doubt if it is even greater than small," the warden stated in the appeal.
The girl is missing
According to the Supreme Court Senate lead by Judge Věra Kůrká, which allowed the appeal, the basic condition for imposing protective care is that the child commits something that would be considered a crime if the perpetrator was an adult.
The Supreme Court stated that the Ostrava courts did not deal at all with the question whether the voluntary intercourse meets the definition of a crime and whether the girl knew she was acting illegally.
"Such a deed must not only show all the formal signs of a crime but also the needed degree of social dangerousness," the judges stated.
However, the verdict comes too late for the girl. In April 2006, she ran away from the institution and is registered as a runaway child. The judges think she left the Czech Republic a long time ago.
