He was 21.
She was 13.
They had sex in his bedroom. He was arrested for the crime.
But according to a South Australian judge, he shouldn’t be in jail, as he did not commit a serious crime.
And today he is ‘free’ on a good behaviour bond.
Sasha Pierre Huerta, aged 21, met the young girl last month at a bar in Adelaide.
It was an all-ages night at the inner city Marble Bar.
The girl was described in court documents as dressed “like a 23-year-old”.
The encounter led to sexting-via-Facebook in which she claimed to be 14 years old. She was actually 13.
“This is a girl who was not a girl who was sitting at home just putting Barbie dolls away,” judge Rosemary Davey said.
The relationship developed and they decided upon a time and place to have sex.
In court, lawyers for both parties agreed that Huerta was aware of her age – and that she could not lawfully consent – when he had sex with her in his home.
In the case before the District Court in Adelaide, Huerta pleaded guilty to one count of having sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 14 years.
But the judge did not jail him.
Huerta was sentenced to a two-year jail term, wholly suspended with a two-year good behaviour bond.
The judge Davey said in her transcripts that Sasha Pierre Huerta was not a predator and his teenage victim “was looking for” a sexual encounter.
The Advertiser reports that the courtroom was in fact filled with a class of teenage students hearing the case. The judge referred to these students in her findings.
She said that she doubted the school class in the gallery understood their developing sexuality could lead to criminal charges.
“I’m not suggesting that it’s not a serious matter for a man, although he is a young man too, to have sexual intercourse with a person underage,” she said.
“I would like to do a straw poll of the young people sitting in court at the moment — I’m not going to — to find out how many of them realise it’s a serious crime to even have touching of the genital area under the age of 17.
It’s just that I find it extraordinary that there’s never public discussion about (the fact) we have a whole generation of young people having sex… which is a crime.”
The judge told Huerta that we live in a world where overly sexualised messages are the norm for today’s teenagers.
Top Comments
Just read down the comments.
There's a lot of defence for the decisions that a 13-year-old can make, but not enough attention to the responsibilities of a 21-year-old adult. "Real love", "willing" or "encouragement" don't change the fact that he was a legal adult for three years and simply held no respect for the laws of his society. I've known grown men who've had "serious" relationships with newly-teenage girls, and they are deplorable people.
Also, I wouldn't buy the ignorance if claimed he wasn't aware 13 was flat-out illegal.
This is pretty shocking considering I actually know of him and I do believe he is a predator. Anyway I have a mixed opinion on what happened. He is pretty stupid considering the fact he consented to have intercourse with a "14 year old" and I think its bullshit that she "dressed as a 23 year old" especially after they've contacted over Facebook. They both knew what they were doing. Plus the girl did consent to this, since she actually went out of her way to go to HIS house to do what they did. What about her parents? Clueless.