Court clears men who had sex without condoms of rape charges

A man who secretly took off his condom during sex has been given a three month suspended jail sentence but found not guilty of rape by judges in Dordrecht.

The public prosecution department had brought a charge of rape against the man, but the court said that no force had been involved because the couple had consented to sex.

However, the court said the 28-year-old man from Rotterdam was guilty of coercion because his victim had sex without contraception, which was against her will.

The man had abused his partner’s trust, the court said, and had also exposed her to picking up a sexually transmitted disease or becoming pregnant. He was also ordered to pay her €1,000 in compensation.

In a second, similar case, a 26-year-old man admitted having sex with a woman without wearing a condom but said that he had forgotten to put one on in ‘the heat of the moment’.

The public prosecutor had said the man acted deliberately but the court found him not guilty.

This was the first time in the Netherlands that men have been charged with rape when the sex was consensual, but the lack of protection was not.

Known as stealthing in English, the practice is not named in Dutch law and lawyer Mirjam Levy, who represented one of the two men, told news agency ANP before the hearing that there can be no question of coercion if both parties have consented to sex.

Stealthing is considered rape under British law, and there are laws against it in several other places, including parts of Australia and in California.