Prosecutors ask for up to 7 years in prison for prep school grad convicted of sexual assault

CONCORD, N.H. – Prosecutors on Thursday asked a judge to sentence a New England prep school graduate to 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison over a sexual assault on a 15-year-old freshman girl.

The request came at the sentencing for 20-year-old Owen Labrie in a case that has scandalized the exclusive St. Paul’s School and exposed a tradition called Senior Salute, in which upperclassmen competed to have sex with younger students.

Labrie was originally charged with rape, accused of forcing himself on the girl in a nearly deserted school building in 2014, when he was 18 and about to graduate.

A jury in August cleared him of rape but convicted him of misdemeanour sexual assault for having intercourse and other sexual contact with an underage girl. He was also found guilty of using a computer — Facebook and email — to lure her.

The charges carry up to 11 years in prison. And the felony computer charge will require him to register for life as a sex offender.

On Thursday, prosecutors asked for 3 1/2 to 7 years for the computer offence and said they would agree to a suspended sentence on the other charges if Labrie completed a sex offender program.

Labrie was to be given the opportunity to address the court later in the day. But his lawyer has asked for probation and community service, saying the young man has already suffered “enormous” punishment, including the loss of a full scholarship to Harvard.

St. Paul’s has long educated members of America’s elite, counting among its alumni Secretary of State John Kerry, Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners.