Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

A lorry driver in France is refusing a lawyer and demanding the maximum punishment to make up for raping his schoolgirl niece when she was 15 more than 20 years ago.

The schoolgirl, now in her mid-30s, was pressured by him to say nothing after the rape that was carried out in his lorry, but decided to file a complaint after marriage guidance counselling revealed unresolved issues over the sexual assault that she needed to tackle.

But after contacting gendarmes, who questioned the man, he made a full confession and according to local media has made it clear he is willing to take responsibility of his alleged actions that were carried out when he was 31. He is now a father himself, and described the incident as “the catastrophe of his life” which he wanted to make amends for.

The man, who has not been named due to local privacy laws, is appearing before the criminal court of the Landes department of south-western France on charges of rape and sexual assault.

The event took place in the North-West of France, but is being tried in Landes as this is the dwelling place of the accused, a Malagasy truck driver who lives on the coast.

In 2000, the victim, aged 15, moved to France to stay with her brother, while their parents lived in Africa. For the holiday season, the siblings would visit their family in the Pays de la Loire region.

For a whole day, the teenager accompanied her uncle, one of her mother’s ten siblings, on a lorry trip.

In the evening, before returning home, the man reportedly admitted to investigators to having parked on the side of the road and sexually abusing her, despite the girl’s cries and her efforts to escape.

He then persuaded her to say nothing but seventeen years later, s when she started undergoing the therapy that reveals the unresolved issues and resulted in the criminal complaint.

Believing that he deserves twenty to thirty years in prison, the man refuses to be assisted by a lawyer in order to be sentenced to the maximum.

The verdict is expected on Thursday 20th February.

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