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Woman who secretly poked holes in partner’s condoms to get pregnant is jailed after ‘stealthing’

Court hears pair were in a ‘friends with benefits’ relationship but defendant wanted more

Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Saturday 07 May 2022 05:36 BST
Related video: What is stealthing?

A woman who poked holes in her partner’s condom so she could get pregnant has been jailed.

The 39 year-old was convicted of sexual assault in Germany after the ‘stealthing‘ incident with her 42 year-old ‘friend with benefits’.

Stealthing is when a condom is removed without consent during intercourse, but it usually involves a man doing it.

The pair were said to be in a casual relationship and had been meeting regularly since the start of 2021, German media reports.

But the regional court in Bielefeld said the woman developed deeper feelings for her partner that were not reciprocated, as the man was happy with the casual arrangement.

Though the woman was unsuccessful in her attempt to become pregnant, the court heard she had sent the man a Whatsapp saying she was and admitted to sabotaging the condoms.

The 42-year-old responded by filing criminal charges against her and she later admitted to attempting to manipulate her partner, according to local newspaper Neue Westfälische.

Initially, the woman was facing charges of rape but this was later reduced to sexual assault. She was jailed for six months.

Judge Astrid Salewski reportedly told the court: “We have written legal history here today.”

The German case comes after California became the first US state to make it a civil offence for someone to remove a condom without their partner’s consent last October.

And according to a 2018 survey of patients at a sexual health clinic in Melbourne, Australia, almost one third of women and 19% of men who have sex with men reported that they had experienced stealthing.

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