A German police officer was found guilty of sexual assault after he removed his condom during intercourse without telling his partner, a disturbing trend called “stealthing.”
This marks the first case of “stealthing” that’s been prosecuted in Germany. The 36-year-old defendant was sentenced on Dec. 11. He received an eight-month jail sentence, was fined $3,400 in damages and is required to pay a $109 fine to pay for the victim’s STI test.
Court spokesperson Lisa Jani told CNN the perp carried out the offense at his apartment in Berlin. The victim “explicitly requested” that the police officer wear a condom, and she did not give consent to having unprotected sexual intercourse. She realized he was not wearing a condom when he ejaculated.
According to Jani, the woman left the apartment enraged and was worried she might have caught an STI. She ended up calling the police to the man’s apartment, where he didn’t answer the door.
In court, the man defended himself by saying he removed the condom because it had ripped, and that he ejaculated outside the woman’s body, which the victim denied. He was tried for rape, but the court found him guilty of sexual assault. The defendant said he will appeal the verdict to Berlin’s higher courts.
Victims of “stealthing” have only recently been able to take perpetrators to court. In 2017, a Swiss court charged a man with rape after he removed his condom during sex without telling his partner.
Jani noted that prosecuting “stealthing” is still a gray area for local courts.
“There is no precedent on which the judges could rely,” she told CNN.