16-Year-Old Gets 4.5 Years in Jail for Kissing 13-Year-Old

An expert report cites the "impulse of puberty" for a teen's actions that brought him to trial, but that excuse didn't get the 16-year-old off the hook for a sexual assault charge. The boy's crime of apparent passion, per Gulf News, was kissing a 13-year-old girl, whom SBS News identifies as his girlfriend. His sentence for that kiss: four and a half years behind bars, per a judge's ruling Friday in the Turkish province of Antalya. The boy was busted after a classmate filmed him embracing and kissing the girl in her schoolyard, Hurriyet reports. A teacher got wind of the video and told school police, who then referred their findings to prosecutors. The law the teen is said to have violated bans any sexual contact with kids under the age of 15.

An expert report had recommended no punishment at all, but it seems the judge didn't agree. Other teens also went to trial in the case, including the person who shot the video of the kiss—that charge involved "using children in the production of inappropriate images"—and four more who received the video, for "sharing inappropriate images in which children were used." Those five were acquitted. "I am surprised the course of events reached this point," a lawyer for one of those teens tells SBS. "Should [the punishment] be that heavy? It is debatable." The convicted teen's attorney says her client will appeal. (More Turkey stories.)