A woman who poked holes in her partner's condoms without his consent or knowledge, has been found guilty of sexual assault, in what has been described as a "historic" case by the judge.
The court in western Germany found handed the woman a six-month suspended sentenc e for purposefully damaging her partner’s condoms.
The judge handing down the ruling said the unusual case was one for Germany’s history books, in representing an instance of criminal “stealthing” carried out by a female, German news outlet Deutsche Welle reports.
The court case, at a district court in the western German city of Bielefeld, involved a 39-year-old woman who has not been named.
She was said to have been in a “friends with benefits” relationship with a 42-year-old man, according to Mirror Online.
The pair had started a casual, sexual relationship after meeting online at the beginning of 2021.
The woman reportedly developed deeper feelings for her partner, despite knowing that he didn’t want to be in a committed relationship.
She subsequently poked holes in the package of condoms that her partner kept in his nightstand, in the hopes she would become pregnant.
Her efforts were reportedly unsuccessful.
In spite of this, she later wrote the 42-year-old man a message on WhatsApp, informing him that she believed she was pregnant.
In these messages she also confessed to having purposefully damaged the condoms.
The man pressed criminal charges against her, due to her confessions and her mistruths about being with child.
The woman later admitted to having attempted to manipulate her partner.
While prosecutors and the court were in agreement that a crime had been committed, they were initially unsure which specific charges would be levied against the 39-year-old.
Judge Astrid Salewski reportedly told the court that the legal history had been written in the courtroom that day.
While reviewing case law, the judge decided a charge of sexual assault was fitting, after reading about the crime of “stealthing”.
“Stealthing” traditionally refers to when a man secretly removes his condom intercourse, without their partner having known or consented.
“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,” she added.
While stealthing is rape under UK law, there’s only ever been one successful prosecution, which was in 2019.
Lee Hogben, 35, was found guilty of rape and two counts of sexual assault in April 2019 after he “broke the agreed terms of consent” during intercourse with a sex worker. He was jailed for 12 years.
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