A 48-year-old man from Hoogeveen has been acquitted by the court in Assen of assaulting a much younger and vulnerable colleague in the workplace. The court found no evidence of coercion. Ten months in prison had been demanded against the man, five months of which were conditional.
The two were caught in the company toilet by an employee in October 2020. Both had to go to their superiors for an explanation. The youngest said that he underwent the sexual acts against his will. The man suffers from a mental disability, the management took his story very seriously.
The sexual abuse would not only take place in the workplace, but also in the toilet in a pub and in the home of a friend of the forties. The court ruled that both men committed sexual acts with each other. However, the fact that there was coercion by means of psychological superiority or violence is insufficiently apparent from the file.
In addition, it has not been established that the Hoogevener was aware of the mental disability at that time, as a result of which the declarant would not have been able to make his will known or to defend himself.