Stanford sexual assault convict Brock Turner forced to attend drug and alchohol counseling

The former student athlete had lied to his probation officer about his intake as a teenager

Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in jail in controversial circumstances

Brock Turner, the former Stanford student convicted of sexual assault, will now have to attend drug and alcohol counseling per the recommendation of his probation officer.

A Santa Clara county jury found Turner, 20, guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious 23-year-old woman behind a dumpster at a fraternity party. Judge Aaron Persky sentenced turner to six months of jail time – despite the prosecution’s recommendation of three years.

In addition to his jail sentence, which was seen as too soft by many in the US, Turner was required to register in the national sex offender registry and received three years of probation.

Probation manager Jana Taylor recommended the counseling after Turner was caught lying about his habits in his first probation interview in May. He had claimed that he only started using drugs and drinking after entering Stanford in September 2014, according to the Associated Press.

Text messages recovered by investigators revealed that he was not telling the truth.

Ms Taylor sent an email on 15 June that said Turner will return to court to receive order to attend the counseling sessions. She said the probation department does not “want to be placed in a position in the event we violate him for positive tests and his attorney argue we never modified probation to include counseling.”

A probation officer had previously cited Turner’s intoxication as a factor that made Turner’s crime “less serious” than other similar instances of felony sexual assault.

Turner is expected to be released from jail on 2 September.