Man charged with sexual assault for removing condom without consent is on trial.

BarcelonaThe Barcelona Court on Tuesday judged a man accused of sexual assault for having removed a condom without consent while having sexual relations with a woman, a practice known as stealthing and on which the Supreme Court has already ruled, considering it sexual assault. In Tuesday's trial, the Prosecutor's Office requested that the accused be sentenced to three years in prison.

The accused and the complainant met on a dating app and met on November 13, 2022. After going for a walk, they went to her house and had consensual sex. The woman testified in court that the man took advantage of a moment when he was behind her to remove the condom without her noticing. In fact, she explained that it wasn't until they finished having sex that she saw the condom next to the bed, and immediately reproached him for having taken it off.

"He didn't ask my permission," said the complainant, adding that she felt deceived and humiliated by an action that she defined as an act of violence against women. "At no point did he apologize to me," she said, explaining that the accused acted "as if what he did was normal." In the following days, worried about possibly having contracted a sexually transmitted disease, she underwent tests and had to continue drug treatment for six months.

The accused defends himself by saying that he "pressured" her.

However, the defendant has defended himself by saying that he always uses a condom when having sex and that on that occasion he was the one who provided it, contrary to the woman's statements. He claims that the woman insisted on continuing to have sex, supposedly knowing he wasn't using a condom, and has even said that the woman "pressured" him.

In addition to the prison sentence, the Prosecutor's Office also asked the court to impose a restraining order on the defendant from the victim and that after serving his prison sentence, he should spend four years on probation. The prosecutor clarified that, following Supreme Court jurisprudence, he cannot file charges for sexual assault with penetration—for which he initially sought a six-year prison sentence—because in this case the sexual relations were consensual. Instead, he narrowed the charge to a crime of sexual assault with reference to an attack on sexual freedom, for which he is seeking a three-year prison sentence.