A German woman has been convicted of "stealthing" in a significant case for sexual assault in the country.
The case took place in western Germany, where a woman was accused of trying to get one over on a sex partner. The 39-year-old woman in question had been in a friends with benefits situation with a 42-year-old man. She started to develop feelings for him, but he wanted to keep their situation as it was. She continued to go along with it but hatched her own plan behind the scenes.
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She began sabotaging the condoms used in their sexual encounters. Her partner wasn't aware that she was poking holes in the condoms in hopes of getting pregnant and bringing them together as something more. When he found out, he pressed charges.
The man and woman met and began hooking up in early 2021. She developed feelings for her partner, but he was consistent in his desire to keep things casual.
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Despite that, she continued on with the relationship. She would go into his condom stash in his nightstand and use a pin to poke holes in the condoms, rendering them ineffective.
Her attempts to get pregnant were ultimately unsuccessful. It's unclear whether or not she thought she was at one point, but she told her partner she believed she was pregnant and confessed to what she'd been doing. It was then that he pressed charges.
The case left prosecutors with a challenge of what to charge the woman with. Both the prosecutors and the court agreed that a crime had been committed in this case but were unclear what the specific crime charged should be.
"We have written legal history here today," Judge Astrid Salewski told the court, per Deutsche Welle.
Initially, prosecutors examined charging the woman with rape. After further deliberation and research, the judge came upon the crime of "stealthing" in case law. Stealthing is typically the act of a man removing a condom during sex without telling his partner. Prosecutors determined that sabotaging the condom was an equitable reverse of this act.
"This provision also applies in the reverse case. The condoms were rendered unusable without the man's knowledge or his consent," Salewski said in her decision.
"No means no here as well."
The woman was given a six-month suspended sentence. Many believe this will open the door for more such convictions and more equal application of sexual assault laws.
