Owen Labrie, a 19-year-old former student at the prestigious St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, was found not guilty on Friday of raping a 15-year-old girl. However, he was convicted on lesser charges.
Labrie was not convicted on three felony counts of sexual assault, reports Reuters. Still, he was found guilty of misdemeanor counts, including having sex a person underage and a felony count of seducing a minor online.
The student was accused of raping the victim last year, when he was 18, after he graduated. It was part of a custom called the “senior salute,” a get together between senior students and younger students before graduation.
According to the New York Times, the girl, who was on the stand for a week, claimed that Labrie bit her and scraped inside her vagina, although she told him “no” many times during the encounter. Labrie, who was the defense’s only witness, testified that it was consensual and that they did not have sex.
The defense also zeroed in on testimony from the girl’s close friend, who said the girl told her that she would have sex. The girl denied saying that though.
By finding Labrie not guilty of the major sexual assault charges, the jury believed that the prosecution did not prove that the girl didn’t consent to sex. However, they believed that the two did have sex.
“Today, a measure of justice has been served for victims of sexual violence,” the accuser’s family said after the verdict. “Owen Labrie was held accountable in some way by a jury of his peers for the crimes he committed against our daughter.”
As the Times points out, the trial also put the exclusive school on trial itself. Both the prosecution and defense asked witnesses to outline exactly what the “senior salute” is. St. Paul’s has said that the tradition isn’t an accurate reflection of the school culture.