Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child
Aggravated sexual assault of a child under section 22.021 of the Penal Code—ASAC—is a first-degree felony: five to ninety-nine years or life in prison. Section 22.021(f) raises the minimum to 25 years when the child is younger than ten, or when the child is younger than fourteen and the offense involved one of the statutory aggravators: serious bodily injury, a deadly weapon, acting in concert with another person, or administering a substance to impair the child’s ability to resist. Under section 508.145 of the Government Code, those sentences are not eligible for parole. A 25-year sentence is twenty-five years, day for day.
A conviction requires lifetime sex-offender registration.
What the State must prove
ASAC requires penetration—of the child’s sexual organ or anus, or the defendant’s sexual organ by the child—by any means. The child must be under fourteen. Consent is not a defense: a thirteen-year-old cannot legally consent, and the State need not prove force.
The State need not prove physical injury. The offense is complete whether or not the child sustained injuries that left forensic evidence.
How these cases are built
ASAC cases almost always begin with a disclosure—to a parent, teacher, or another adult—and proceed through a standard investigative sequence. Law enforcement refers the child to a Child Advocacy Center for a forensic interview, typically recorded. That interview becomes the backbone of the prosecution: the foundation for the charging decision, the grand jury, and usually the trial.
No corroboration is required. The child’s testimony alone, if believed by a jury, is legally sufficient to sustain a conviction. There is no requirement that the State produce physical evidence, eyewitness testimony, or any independent confirmation of the child’s account.
ASAC carries no statute of limitations. Adult complainants sometimes come forward years or decades after the alleged offense.
Defense
These cases are fundamentally about the reliability of the child’s account and the integrity of the investigation.
We examine the forensic interview closely. Recognized protocols—open-ended, non-leading questions that allow the child to narrate rather than confirm—exist precisely because children are susceptible to suggestion. Did the interviewer follow those protocols? Did the child’s account change between the initial disclosure and the recorded interview? Who first asked the child about the alleged contact, and how was the question posed?
The circumstances of the disclosure matter as much as the disclosure itself. Many ASAC allegations arise during family conflict—divorce, custody disputes, or domestic violence proceedings. When adults with a stake in the outcome were involved in eliciting or shaping the child’s account before any professional interview, that history is central to the defense.
In delayed-disclosure cases, we examine what triggered the allegation years after the fact and how memory, suggestion, and motive interact over time.
See also continuous sexual abuse of a child and indecency with a child.
Talk to us
713-224-1747.
If you have been convicted and need an appeal, email us at [email protected].