Danish Man Acquitted of Sexual Assault Charges Because He Suffers from 'Sexsomnia'
Sexsomnia? Surely that must be some made-up Scandinavian thing, right? Wrong. It's become fairly well-documented disorder over the past few years. The term was invented in 2003 to describe the roughly 7.6% of people with sleep disorders who reported initiating sex while asleep.
One of those 7.6% is apparently a Danish man who was recently acquitted of molesting two 17-year-old girls because the court found he suffered from the disorder.
According to reports from the Glostrup court, the 31-year-old man groped the two girls while they were sleeping in his Copenhagen apartment after a 2011 party. The girls quickly awoke the man and later reported him to police.
But after the defendant's testimony, in which he made a credible case that he had no recollection of the assault, and the presentation of medical tests showing the man actually suffered from sexsomnia, the court found the man not guilty. Prosecutors apparently bought the story, too, and have no plans to appeal the decision.
