Rape accused walks free

A man has walked free from court after pleading guilty to the rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Lady Scott took the “wholly exceptional” decision to grant Daniel Cieslak an absolute discharge at theHigh Court in Glasgow yesterday.

Cieslak, 21, met the victim and her friend, aged 12 and 13, in a taxi queue in Edinburgh after a night out in the summer of 2015 and went back to a party with them thinking they were 16 and 17, a statement on the Judiciary of Scotland website said.

He was 19 at the time. LadyScott said:“Youunderstood from chat in the taxi that the victim was 16 years old and her friend was 17 years old. The taxi driver had the impression that the victim was about 20 years old.

“Once at the flat, after some time, you paired off and you and the victim

“The victim willingly participated in intercourse”

engaged in sexual intercourse.

“She left the next morning. She had no concerns and there was no suggestion of her being distressed.”

Police officers who had spoken to the victim earlier in the night in relation to another matter also had no concerns over her age, Lady Scott said in her order.

The judge said Cieslak was culpable under “strict liability”, where victims under 13 are deemed by law to be incapable of consent.

But the judge said there were “a number of exceptional circumstances” which applied.

She said: “Although the factual absence of consent is not an ingredient of the offence, it is a material factor for the purposes of sentencing. Here the victim willingly participated in the sexual intercourse and there was, in fact, consent.”