I am 14 years old and my boyfriend is 19. Can he have problems?

Ivana Biuk

Ivana Biuk

mag.iur.

I will turn 15 soon; the boy I am in a relationship with is 19 years old. My parents know about this relationship and they did not say anything special except to watch what I was doing but they did not mind. His parents do not even know, and he is afraid to tell them because his father is a police officer, and he is afraid that he will react negatively and accuse him of being a paedophile or something similar… Now my boyfriend wants to break up because I am a minor and he is an adult… regardless of the fact that I am voluntarily with him! Now I wonder if he can really receive any punishment and if so, what punishment?

Article 158 of the Criminal Code (Official Gazette, No. 125/11, 144/12, 56/15, 61/15, 101/17) stipulates that whoever has sexual intercourse or a sexual act equated with it with a child under the age of fifteen, or induces a child under 15 to perform sexual intercourse or a sexual act equated with sexual intercourse with a third party or to perform sexual acts that are equated with sexual intercourse on itself, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term between one and ten years. Whoever commits a lewd act against a child under the age of fifteen or causes such child to commit a lewd act with another person, or commits a lewd act against itself, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term between six months and five years. There shall be no criminal offense referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article if the age difference between persons who have sexual intercourse or a sexual act equated with it or lewd act does not exceed three years. Since you are 14 years old and your boyfriend is 19 years old, therefore, he is almost 5 years older than you, he could be prosecuted for sexually abusing a child under the age of 15. Your consent to intercourse does not change the situation since you are not yet 15 years old, and in the Republic of Croatia the age limit for consent to sexual intercourse is 15 years.