Children under the age of 12 years are “asexual” and take time to realise that the perpetrator’s affection is “wrongful or sinful”, a Delhi court observed in its order to convict a man for raping a minor girl, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.

Principal and District Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma also said that children find it difficult to tell their parents when sexually abused by someone close to the family.

In this case, the convict used to live in the same building as the minor girl.

The convict’s counsel had argued that the girl’s testimony had inconsistencies and she did not mention the exact time and date of the assault.

The court, however, observed that the child “did not depose in a parrot-like manner” and that there was nothing to suggest that she had been tutored to make the statement against the convict.

“[...] Testimony of the prosecutrix [the minor girl] should not be appreciated from the point of view of an adult but from the mindset of a child,” the judge noted, while convicting the man under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.