Kansas judge calls children the ‘aggressor’ in sex abuse case with 67-year-old man

BY TONY RIZZO

FEBRUARY 03, 2019 05:30 AM,

UPDATED 8 HOURS 30 MINUTES AGO

Can children aged 13 and 14 years old be the aggressors in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man?

A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet.

District Judge Michael Gibbens sentenced Raymond Soden to five years and 10 months in prison. That was eight years less than what was called for in Kansas sentencing guidelines.

In doing so, the judge opined that the girls, who were both younger than 15, were partly to blame for what happened and questioned how much they were harmed. The judge pointed out that the children went to Soden’s house voluntarily and didn’t appear in court when he was sentenced.

“I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct,” Gibbens said before sentencing Soden. “They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell.”

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