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VIOLENCE

Man freed in landmark S&M case

A 32-year-old man was on Tuesday acquitted of assault after having violent sex with a teenager in a landmark case testing how much sexual violence is legally permitted in Sweden between consenting partners.

Published: 28 September 2010 14:34 CEST
Man freed in landmark S&M case

The Malmö district court acquitted the man on charges of aggravated assault over a weekend of slave-like sex with the then 16-year-old girl.

The ruling is taken as a primary legal indication over whether a girl prone to self-harm is able to consent and submit herself to violent sex.

The issue of how much sexual violence is allowed between consensual sex partners had never been heard in the Swedish court system and experts in sadomasochism were called to testify in the hearing in Malmö district court.

The district court noted in its ruling that valid consent can not apply to aggravated assault, which in general can neither afford freedom from responsibility for the perpetrator. The court considered the level of violence to which the girl was subjected to be reduced to a classification of assault.

The court thus ruled that this was not a case of aggravated assault, and also noted that the girl had issued her consent of her own free will, observing that she had herself taken the initiative in contacting the man.

The 16-year-old girl came in contact with the man through a sadomasochism-themed website and later signed a “slave contract” in which she consented to being “used, abused and thoroughly humiliated”.

“I want to have a really hard master. Someone who won’t wimp out,” the teen wrote the 32-year-old during their online chat, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

During their sexual encounter, which took place in January, the girl allowed herself to be locked in a cage and have clamps attached to her breasts, according to several media reports.

The 16-year-old was also hit with whips and rulers, and made to have oral sex until she vomited, according to Aftonbladet.

Police were alerted to the alleged assault when a relative of the teen noticed she had bruises all over her body.

The man and the girl spent ten days discussing what they wanted to do when they met, before she arrived to take part in their role play.

The girl was over 16-years-old and thus above the age of consent and the court ruled that it had not been proven that her age, her history of self-harm, or any other extenuating circumstance, rendered her unable to understand what she was consenting to, or that her consent was meant in all seriousness.

The court furthermore observed that the girl had previous experience of BDSM sex and thus knew what she was getting herself into.

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POLICE

French government to rewrite controversial Article 24 of security bill

French MPs will completely rewrite the contentious Article 24 of the security bill that restricts the publication of images of police, which caused thousands to take to the streets in protest across France this weekend.

Published: 30 November 2020 16:20 CET
French government to rewrite controversial Article 24 of security bill
Christophe Castaner, former French interior minister and current parliamentary president of the ruling party La République en Marche, speaks to journalists on November 30th. Photo: AFP

“We propose a complete rewriting of Article 24,” said Christophe Castaner, Parliamentary President of the ruling party La République en Marche and former interior minister.

Castaner, who held a press conference on Monday afternoon after President Emmanuel Macron summoned ministers to an emergency summit, said the government had “taken note” of the public opinion’s “incomprehension” of the text in question.

READ ALSO Aujourd'hui: What's happening in France on Monday 

France's controversial security law proposal – which was passed in the lower house of parliament last week but still faces legislative hurdles – has caused uproar across the country and saw hundreds of thousands protesters take to the streets in several French cities on Saturday.

Article 24, the most controversial part of the text, would criminalise publishing (either by journalists or on social media) images of on-duty police, if there is manifest intent to harm their “physical or psychological integrity”.

Journalists groups and international NGOs say the vague wording of the Article is open to abuse.

“The misunderstandings raised by Article 24 require that we take the time to discuss this point again,” Castaner said, as he refuted critics' claims that the bill would limit press freedom by making it more difficult to film police.

“As legislators, we must be the guarantors of fundamental rights and freedoms, first and foremost, of course, freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” Castaner said.

“Article 24 is pursuing two objectives, one of them being to better protect police officers. . .The other objective of article 24 is to preserve press freedom, whether it concerns journalists. . . or citizens.”

But several rights organisations have called for the government to withdraw the article in question, a call that gained strength after a French media published a video of three police officers beating up a music producer in Paris last week. This came shortly after police violently cleared a migrant camp set up in protest at Place de la République, in the heart of Paris.

Macron called cabinet ministers and parliamentary leaders to a crisis meeting on Monday to rapidly produce “suggestions to re-establish confidence” between the police and the population.

The rewriting will be done by the three majority groups in the French parliament – LREM, MoDem and Agir.

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