The Public Prosecution Service considers secretly removing a condom, ‘stealthing’, as forced unsafe sex, a form of rape. That is what a public prosecutor said on Tuesday during the first Dutch trial about stealthing. She demands a prison sentence of one year, of which four months is suspended, against the suspect Khaldoun K. A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service confirms this when asked.
The Rotterdammer K. (28) met a woman he met through a dating site in August 2021, according to the ANP news agency. They had sex by mutual consent, on the condition that K. wear a condom. The victim accuses him of secretly removing the condom during sex. According to the officer, the victim may have agreed to safe sex, but unsafe sex took place without consent. K. denies the allegation.
Stealthing is not explicitly mentioned as a crime in criminal law, so the Public Prosecution Service uses rape as an umbrella term to have K. sentenced. If that does not work, the Public Prosecution Service calls on the judge to convict K. of ‘coercion’, because he allegedly forced the woman to “to tolerate having unprotected sex with him”. The officer: “We are submitting this to the court because we believe that it constitutes a criminal offense in any case. It is up to the court whether this is rape or coercion or neither.” In countries such as Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand, stealthing is included in the criminal code.
Immaterial damage
The victim demands compensation of 4,000 euros for immaterial damage, her lawyer said in a statement read during the hearing. According to the lawyer, perpetrators do not realize “the enormous damage they are causing”.
The officer relies, among other things, on WhatsApp contact between the victim and K. In it, the woman said she enjoyed the sex but thought it was “not okay” that K. would have removed the condom. Many messages were deleted in that conversation. For that reason, K.’s lawyer calls it “mess work” by the judiciary that the WhatsApp conversation is cited.
Another case is pending in Dordrecht against an alleged ‘stealther’. This 26-year-old suspect admits that his condom came off during sex with the victim, but claims that this happened accidentally. The sentence against him is comparable; 3,000 euros in damages and twelve months in prison, six of which are conditional.