A Swiss man was recently convicted of rape after he secretly removed his condom during sex without getting his partner’s consent first.
According to the Independent, the 47-year-old Frenchman (who has not been named publicly) met his Swiss partner on Tinder in June 2015. On their second date, the two started to have consensual sex when the man secretly removed his condom without asking the woman first. As soon as she found out what he had done, the unnamed woman called police and he was arrested.
He reportedly told the jury that he had intended to wear a condom, but it ripped mid-coitus, so he decided to take it off altogether and not replace it.
The Criminal Court in Lausanne — the highest court in Switzerland — determined that the act constituted as rape because the woman could have refused to have sex with him if she had known the condom was removed. He was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence, but he has already announced plans to appeal his conviction.
In comments to news agency RTS, the victim’s lawyer described it as “a first in Switzerland, but according to Broadly, removing a condom during sex is legally deemed rape under UK law.
“A lot comes down to what can be proved in court, however,” says Dr Sinead Ring of the University of Kent. “If it’s proved the woman consented to sex with a condom and he changed the circumstances under which she’d consented, it’s quite possible he’d be convicted of rape. But a jury would have to determine that he didn’t have a reasonable belief in consent and just went ahead and did it anyway.”
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[H/T: Broadly]