The Swedish Court of Appeals (hovrätt) sentenced a man to jail for eight months after he was found guilty of negligent rape (“oaktsamt våldtäkt”), DN.se reports. The court ruled that the man was aware that the woman was likely a victim of human trafficking and was therefore not a willing partner: After an encounter with the woman, the man reportedly wrote on his facebook page “Trafficking suspected. Not recommended.”
While the man pled guilty to buying sex and to degrading photography (“kränkande fotografering”) he appealed the rape charge. The Swedish court upheld the previous court’s judgement but reduced the sentence from one year to eight months. The reduced sentence was likely due to following the punishment precedent set by the Swedish Supreme Court in another negligent rape case only several months ago.
On the 1st of July, 2108, the law changed to make sex illegal unless it is mutually, expressly and/or obviously consensual. TT reports that to be convicted of rape alone, the perpetrator must have acted intentionally. If the perpetrator was “merely” grossly negligent in ascertaining the victim’s willingness they can be found guilty of “negligent rape”.