A man from The Netherlands has become the first ever to be convicted for stealthing. According to the Daily Mail, the 28-year-old named only as Khaldoun F was cleared of rape by Dordrecht District Court but was given a (suspended) jail sentence for his crime.
“By his actions, the suspect forced the victim to tolerate having unprotected sex with him. In doing so, he restricted her personal freedom and abused the trust she had placed in him,” the court said in its ruling, according to NBC Los Angeles. They added that the man’s actions left the victim vulnerable “to contracting sexually transmitted diseases and an unwanted pregnancy.”
Khaldoun F clearly didn’t think what he did was a big deal. The court heard that he texted her after the woman after they slept together and told her she’d be “fine” even though he removed the condom without her knowledge or consent.
He was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence and won’t spend a day behind bars unless he commits another crime. The court also ordered him to pay a €1,000 fine.
Stealthing was made illegal in California in 2021. Several states in Australia and Tasmania have also outlawed the act, with South Australia due to assign a maximum penalty of life in prison for those convicted.
A 2018 study by Monash University found that one in three women and one in five men have been the victims of stealthing around the world. A depressing 12% of women between the ages of 21 to 30 have experienced stealthing, according to a 2019 paper. It’s disgusting how much this is gaining traction and how many people think they can get away with this.
From the sounds of things, Khaldoun F won’t have learned anything from what he did, especially since he won’t face a single consequence for his potentially life-changing actions. Lest we forget, stealthing is sexual assault. It’s never, ever okay.
