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Offbeat News
Saturday, Dec. 11, 2004
Man Acquitted of Rape; Says He Was Asleep
OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian court has acquitted a man
accused of raping a sleeping woman after he said he was also
asleep at the time.
The 18-year old woman, who had gone to sleep dressed in
trousers and a sweater on a sofa after a party with friends,
awoke to find the 34-year-old man having sex with her. The man
said he was woken by her screams for help.
"He said that he was asleep and the majority of the judges
found that they could not rule out the possibility," defense
lawyer Christian Riig told NRK public radio on Thursday.
The three-judge panel in the court in Inderoy, west Norway,
acquitted him by a 2-1 margin because of doubts about whether
he had been conscious.
Riig declined to speculate about how the man, who had been
drinking, could have had sex in his sleep, apparently after
undressing the woman. But he said an ex-partner of the man had
testified by telephone that similar things had happened to her.