A lawyer was sentenced to 15 years in jail for sexually exploiting a 13-year-old girl. According to the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases, the culprit profited from the vulnerable state of the victim and made her have sex with him, IPN reports.

In 2016-2018, after getting acquainted with the 13-year-old girl, using the vulnerable position of the victim who was from a socially deprived family, he gained the minor’s confidence and accommodated her at his apartment in the municipality of Chisinau, where he persuaded her to have sex with him for money.

The lawyer paid 150 to 400 lei to the girl for every sexual intercourse.

The man pleaded not guilty. The Ciocana branch of the Chisinau City Court sentenced him to 15 years behind bars for trafficking in children and banned him from holding posts and performing activities related to the protection of the rights and interests of minors for a five-year period.

The sentence can be challenged in the Chisinau Appeals Court.