Heinsoo was reiterating comments made by another prosecutor junior to him and from the same district office.

Eesti Ekspress reported on Wednesday that although a criminal investigation revealed there were more than two victims in the case, at the Pihlakodu Tabasalu care home near Tallinn, the prosecutor's office does not find the care facility to be at fault.

The crime itself alone will be discussed in court, as, according to the prosecutor's office, there is insufficient evidence that the sexual crime caused any health damage to the victims, who suffer from dementia.

Arika Lepp, the prosecutor who led the investigation, also told Eesti Ekspress: "Not every non-consensual sexual act necessarily causes mental and physical health damage."

Paper Õhtuleht reported on Thursday that this comment had been greeted with great shock not only by the general public, but also by legal experts and specialists working with sexual violence cases.

The prosecutor's office stood by its words, however, with Heinsoo saying: "I am of the opinion that the senior prosecutor was right in saying that."

Heinsoo is Lepp's superior at the prosecutor's office, and went on to note that while every sexual crime indeed causes harm, that harm may not amount to damage to health so far as is defined in the relevant government regulation.

According to that regulation, damage to health is defined as "a disruption in the anatomical integrity of the body's organs and tissues, or in their physiological functions, as well as a disease or other pathological condition caused by mechanical, physical, chemical, biological, psychological, or other factors."

If a disorder or condition based on this rather complex wording has not been identified, then, according to the prosecutor's explanation, it is not possible to speak of health damage.

Criminal proceedings against a 55-year-old male who worked as a caregiver for the elderly began in mid-December 2023.

The information only reached the police nearly two weeks after another employee at the same nursing home found the accused next to an elderly client and reportedly not wearing trousers; the employee who made that discovery only approached the home's management over a week later, with Pihlakodu itself filing a report with the police another four days after that approach.

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