The Minas Gerais Court of Justice (TJMG) acquitted a 35-year-old man of statutory rape charges involving a 12-year-old girl, overturning a first-instance sentence of nine years and four months in prison. By majority, the panel accepted arguments that the pair had a consensual affective relationship with the family’s approval and found the situation neither violent, coercive, fraudulent nor forced.
The ruling also acquitted the girl’s mother, described as complicit due to alleged family consent for the relationship. The decision diverged from the Brazilian Penal Code, which defines any sexual act with a minor under 14 as rape of a vulnerable person. The National Council of Justice (CNJ) immediately requested explanations from the state court, according to El Pais.
The reporting judge noted that the girl intended to continue the relationship upon turning 14 and included praise of the accused. A dissenting opinion argued the child’s vulnerability should have been protected under binding precedent that prohibits sexual acts with minors under 14 regardless of consent or family endorsement.
The man had admitted to police that he had sexual relations with the girl. The court’s legal interpretation focused on its assessment that the relationship lacked violence, coercion, fraud, or force. As of the latest reporting, no one has been arrested.
The case began after the girl’s absence from school triggered a report to the local child-protection council. She had left home following an argument with her father and went to a funk party. There, she consumed drugs and alcohol before going to the home of the 35-year-old neighbor identified as her boyfriend. She later sought medical attention with dizziness, tachycardia, vomiting, vaginal bleeding, and agitation. She received care at UPA Norte and was transferred to Hospital Odilon Behrens, a reference center for sexual-violence victims, where she underwent examinations and remained under observation.
Authorities arrested the man and the girl’s mother in April 2024. In the first trial, the man was sentenced to nine years in prison for rape of a vulnerable person, while the mother was acquitted, according to G1.
The acquittal provoked an immediate political and social response. Demonstrations in Belo Horizonte gathered primarily mothers in front of the court and at Praça Sete. They displayed banners and teddy bears with slogans such as “A child is not a wife,” denouncing the normalization of sexual violence against girls. Organizers said the decision was not an isolated episode but emblematic of a system that protects aggressors while exposing girls to violence.
The Brazilian Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship condemned the ruling and said Brazilian policy is based on the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents. It rejected the use of family consent or a self-declared marital status to minimize violations and repudiated child marriage as a severe human-rights abuse that worsens gender, race, and class inequalities.
Inside the court, the split was clear. Two male judges formed the majority that accepted the existence of a consensual affective bond and family consent. The only female judge on the panel, Kárin Emmerich, dissented, saying the law expressly disallows any sexual practice with minors under 14, even where there is claimed consent or affective involvement. The majority suggested the pair were two young people in love, a framing that became a flashpoint for critics who maintain the legal standard leaves no room for exceptions.
Census figures show that approximately 34,000 girls under 14 have declared themselves “married” in Brazil despite the legal prohibition of marriage before 16. Thirty-eight babies are born every day to mothers under the age of 14. A review of recent case law identified nine acquittals in 2024 and 2025 involving adults accused of raping minors under 14, with men presiding in all nine cases.
Produced with the assistance of a news-analysis system.