The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has demanded a six-month prison sentence against a forty-year-old man suspected of having unsafe sex while his bed partner did not want it. This is the first time someone in the Netherlands has been prosecuted for this.
The suspect and the victim met via a dating app. After the date in August, they allegedly went home together and had sex. The woman had asked the man if he had a condom with him, which he allegedly confirmed.
But when it came to sex, the man did not use a condom, according to the OM. “Even when the woman asks again. Even when the victim makes it clear once more that she does not want it this way, the suspect continues.”
According to the public prosecutor, it is clear that the suspect knew that the woman did not want unsafe sex. The OM sees the fact that the suspect still continued as a form of rape.
This is the first time someone in the Netherlands has been prosecuted for having unsafe sex while the partner does not want it, since the Sexual Offenses Act came into effect. In the new law, no more proof is needed that someone was forced into sex to prove rape or assault. It is already punishable if it is clear that someone did not want sex, but it was still continued.
The Public Prosecution Service has a WhatsApp conversation as evidence
According to the OM, there is evidence. For example, a friend of the victim came by after she had called her “distraught”. “She says the woman looked dazed,” the public prosecutor said at the hearing.
The public prosecutor also mentions a WhatsApp conversation the day after the incident: “Continuing while I asked to put on a condom is not okay. Continuing while I said I didn’t want this is not okay. You lied when I asked if you had condoms with you,” the woman wrote.
The suspect responded: “Forgive me if I made a mistake.” According to the man, this does not mean that he knew he was wrong. “Apologies do not mean that I confess guilt. I wanted to end the argument and look to the future,” he said at the hearing.