COSTA RICA NEWS — A high school teacher at the Colegio Técnico de Talamanca (Limón) was convicted by the Tribunal de Juicio de Limón (Limon criminal court) to three years in prison for offering a grade eight student a pass on exams if she allowed him to touch her buttocks.
Although the student refused the offer and the sexual act never took place, the five judges of the Sala Tercera, upheld the Limón court decision of April 2013. The incident occurred in June 2010.
Article 160 of the Código Penal (Penal Code) sanctions with three to eights years imprisonment for paying, promising to pay or other economic benefit, including a third party, for sexual or erotic acts of a minor.
In this particular case, there was contradictory position between the various courts, some pointing out that an offer or promise was not enough – that the erotic act should have taken place – for a crime to have been committed. The Sala Tercera decision unifies the courts in the interpretation of the criminal code.
Milena Grillo, director of the Fundación Paniamor, welcomed the judgment, reminded us that the organization participated in the reform of the Penal Code back in 2007, to strengthen the fight against sexual exploitation of minors.
Paniamor is a Costa Rican, non-profit, non partisan, private organization, of a preventive and technical nature, created in 1987, and declared of Public Interest by the Costa Rican Government, in 1990.
Source: La Nacion, Profesor condenado por ofrecer puntos a alumna para tocarla
