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Dec. 19, 2018 / 1:05 AM GMT / Updated 1:46 AM GMT
By Doha Madani and Associated Press
A judge has refused to shorten the jail term for Owen Labrie, a former student at the elite St. Paul’s prep school who in 2015 was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old classmate a year earlier.
Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler in New Hampshire denied appeals on Tuesday to shorten Labrie’s sentence, saying he had to take into account “justice for the victim.”
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Smukler ordered that Labrie spend the next 10 months in jail, starting on the day after Christmas.
Labrie was found guilty in 2015 of one count of “certain uses of computer services prohibited,” three counts of sexual assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child in the case involving a classmate who was 15 at the time. Labrie, now 23, was 18 at the time of the assault, which prosecutors said was part of “Senior Salute,” a game of sexual conquest, at St. Paul’s School.
He was acquitted of rape.
Labrie was sentenced to a year in jail and had to register as a sex offender. Authorities initially allowed him out with electronic monitoring pending an appeal, but revoked the decision after he was found guilty of curfew violations.
“It’s been a very long haul for him,” Labrie’s attorney, Jaye Rancourt, told reporters Tuesday. “He was a very young man at the time he was convicted. We had hoped four years later would be a different outcome. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.”
Labrie’s victim released a statement to NBC News on Tuesday saying the ruling held her assailant and the school accountable in a way she has wanted since she reported the alleged May 2014 rape.
“Today’s decision is important because it shows survivors that people are listening, even if it takes several years for a single case to be resolved,” she said. “The only way we will ever truly change rape culture is by holding perpetrators and the institutions that are complicit to these crimes responsible.
At the time of Labrie’s conviction, the rector for St. Paul’s released a statement commending the victim for her “remarkable strength.” He also said the school has a “responsibility to ensure that our students live and learn together in a community that is built on respect, caring, and support for one another.”
The New Hampshire state Supreme Court is deciding on a request for a new trial from Labrie’s defense, who argue he had an ineffective legal team prior to his conviction.