A German woman has been jailed for sneakily poking holes in her lover’s condoms in an underhanded attempt to get pregnant.
“We have written legal history here today,” Judge Astrid Salewski told the court of the act of contraceptive sabotage, which was committed by an unnamed 39-year-old woman against her 42-year-old partner, DW reported.
Known as “stealthing,” the seed-y practice occurs when someone surreptitiously removes a condom during sexual intercourse.
The perpetrator had reportedly been involved in a “friends with benefits”-style relationship with the victim since 2021, and would regularly meet up for hanky panky. However, she soon craved a deeper connection, a feeling that was not shared by her bed buddy, who preferred their casual arrangement.
That’s when she decided to perforate her partner’s prophylactics without his consent.
The sperm burglar never became pregnant, however, she sent him a WhatsApp message claiming she was and also admitted to tampering with his rubbers, DW reported.
The woman’s husband responded by pressing chargers, whereupon she admitted to “stealthing” in court.
However, despite agreeing that she’d committed a crime, the judges were initially undecided on what charges to levy against her due to the lack of historical precedents. In other words, there were a lot of holes in the knowledge base.
After mulling a rape charge, the lawmakers reduced it to sexual assault after reviewing the crime of “stealthing” in a law doc.
Judge Salewski reasoned that while the crime is usually committed by men, the “provision also applies in the reverse case.”
“The condoms were rendered unusable without the man’s knowledge or his consent,” she declared. “No means no here as well.”
Despite the relative obscurity of “stealthing,” the nonconsensual trend has been on the rise in recent years with porous prophylactic advocates — both gay and straight — encouraging the practice as they believe it’s a man’s right to spread their seed.
In October California became the first state to outlaw “stealthing,” making it a civil offense to remove a rubber without the partner’s consent.
