Man who removed a condom during sex is the first in the Netherlands to be convicted of ‘stealthing’
Man who secretly removed a condom during sex is the first in the Netherlands to be convicted of ‘stealthing’
- Khaldoun F received a three-month suspended sentence for the crime
- In recent years, laws and precedents have emerged in Europe and North America
A 28-year-old man has become the first convicted person in the Netherlands for secretly removing a condom during sex.
Khaldoun F., whose full name is not known, received a suspended sentence for the crime of stealth, but was acquitted of rape.
He pleaded guilty to coercion in the Rotterdam court after he removed his condom without warning, despite the woman he was with beforehand that she didn’t want to have sex without it.
The court warned that the Khaldoun had “exposed her to contracting sexually transmitted diseases and an unwanted pregnancy.”
The District Court of Rotterdam ruled in different ways for a man who deliberately removed a condom before having sex and another who claimed he ‘forgot’ to put one on
The Syrian-born suspect then texted the victim, including one that said, “You’ll be fine.”
But judges ruled it was not rape, as there was “agreement between the suspect and the complainant about the sexual penetration” and the coercion only related to not using a condom.
The law in the Netherlands does not cover penetration without a condom if consent has already been given for the penetration itself.
Khaldoun was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 euros.
In another case, judges acquitted a 25-year-old man after finding that at no point did he remove a condom, but instead failed to put one on in the heat of the moment.
Ruben R. from Rotterdam said he had asked it voluntarily [his partner] for a condom but ‘forgot’ to put it on.
The court acquitted him, saying that it could not be proven that he deliberately did not use a condom after he said he would.
In the first case, the court was able to demonstrate intent from the WhatsApp conversations between him and his partner.
Dutch law has no specific offense of “stealthing,” but these were the first rulings on the practice, public broadcaster NOS said, adding that similar rulings had been made in countries such as Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand.
The US state of California also made the practice illegal in 2021.
In England and Wales, case law has established that removing condoms without consensual consent is rape.