Taking naked pictures of sleeping teen not a crime: court

Published: 31 Dec 09 10:43 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/24144/20091231/

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A court in Halmstad on the southwest coast of Sweden has dismissed charges against a man who reportedly took a photo of a 17-year-old girl's genitals while she was sleeping. The court said that the incident was was not a punishable offense.

The girl had laid down to sleep on a sofa during a New Year's party. The 49-year-old reportedly lifted up the girl's skirt and photographed her genitals. The man, whose teenage son was hosting the party, was indicted on charges of sexual harassment, local newspaper Hallandsposten reports.

Citing several other cases, the Halmstad district court said that the man had not committed a crime. There is no general prohibition against photographing people without their consent. The same applies to people who are asleep.

The fact that other people have seen the photograph, as claimed by the prosecutor in this case, doesn't make the incident a punishable offense either, according to the court.

The court cited a Swedish Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen) case that cleared a man who had been brought to trial for filming sexual intercourse without the consent of the woman involved.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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11:33 December 31, 2009 by canuk
this is insane.
11:48 December 31, 2009 by Atlas
Welcome to Swedish Court, Yet Again!!!
13:08 December 31, 2009 by Mr B
I bet his son is proud,sounds like a discusting old pervert.
14:26 December 31, 2009 by wxman
Photographing her may not have been a crime, but lifting her skirt without her consent is assault.
14:31 December 31, 2009 by rowdyeyes
old man should be charged for nonsense atleast.
15:10 December 31, 2009 by Tennin
I'm really beginning to believe that the officals, lawmakers, judges here are a bunch of rapist, pedos, child abusers and murderers, since they are so easy on these crimes.

The guy is a complete pervert, taking a picture of someone's privates is usually a crime in most countries, but go figure not here.

I love Sweden, but the extreme easiness on these crimes just disgusts me.
15:10 December 31, 2009 by JonnyDee
Upon first reading this I though the same this, "Why are they not prosecuting this pervert?", but then I thought, this Father is getting his...not to worry, can you imagine his name, his son, his family, the entire country now knows who this guy is.

Its not like he's "getting away" with anything, and arresting him is only going to cost Sweden more money, and fill up another jail cell.

Take it from a Swede living the the U.S., making things "illegal", and "punishing" and imprisoning people doesn't necessarily help quell crime. Sometimes the personal punishment they receive is just as good. he should be embarrassed and exposed, but (in my opinion) NOT prosecuted for this.

And besides all that, perhaps it'll teach promiscuous girls to think twice before A) going out in a skirt without underwear! And B), if you are going to do that, don't pass out on a stranger's couch! It's called common sense, and it's called personal responsibility!
16:09 December 31, 2009 by Kalyissa
I do think its wrong that he got away with what he did but then reading JonnyDees post I think he had a good point there, The guy is probably going to be known locally as having done this as I'm pretty sure the girl in question wouldn't have kept quiet about this so people are going to be alot less trusting of the family in general.

Also yeah going out without underwear is just plain idiotic and in a way just asking for trouble :x

Common sense doesn't seem like something the Swedish have in abundance from what i've seen.
17:20 December 31, 2009 by Mb 65
The courts fine and old pensioner for slapping a disrespecting kid. Then let this disgusting pervert off. What Planet are these judges on.
17:37 December 31, 2009 by glamshek
Thats unbelievable!

Insane simply insane
17:43 December 31, 2009 by double concerto
Ridiculous and degenerate injustice system strikes yet again!!! Quite breath taking, and very bizarre, crazy and cranky!!!
18:23 December 31, 2009 by Suntiger
Playing a bit of devil's advocate here...

I heard about this case as some of my friends discussed it, one who is a law student.

Apparently the reason for this seemingly daft judgement lies in the fact that if they *had* convicted him, it opens up for anyone who feels harassed (either sexually, "regular" or both) to prosecute *anyone* who takes pictures of them. *Anywhere.*

If you're visiting Stockholm in the summer and want to take a picture of the Royal Castle (no strike that, it's ugly. The City Hall) and a young woman in shorts and a top end up in the picture, but she notice it and feel like you're taking a picture of her; then she could drag you to court over it.

Or you're talking a picture of your kid playing with another kid in a park. The other kids mother notice you and thinks you're a pedo; she can drag you to court for taking pictures that includes her child in it.

Ridiculous it might be, but some people are either over-sensitive, over-protective or plain jerks and even if you're found not guilty by the court, you still have to go through with a court procedure.

It's to avoid opening that can of worms that they ruled as they did according to my friend.

Personally I still think they should have slapped the perv with something, but oh well...
18:55 December 31, 2009 by coot
In many parts of the US, the guy would have been charged with "manufacturing child pornography. He would then spend many years in prison and be required to register as a "sex offender" for the rest of his life.

I expect Sweden has similar laws. But is this offence that serious?
18:55 December 31, 2009 by repat_xpat
Lifting the skirt of an under aged girl to take a photo is OK? That can't be true.
19:20 December 31, 2009 by Gypsy Rover
The guy's obviously a bit of a perv,however the girl is obviously not very bright to crash out at a party without her knickers, and probably a slapper as well.

Had she any real pride and self-respect, she would probably have kept it as quiet as possible rather than making the affair public.
20:10 December 31, 2009 by efm
Another case why Sweden needs infusion of moral values and decency.

I would think taking picture of one's genitals without consent is an offence in any culture, specially with under aged people.
20:49 December 31, 2009 by laura ka baal
actually the judge itself is a prostitiute/Pimp and indulges himself in such activities, so naturually how can it be punishable. Naked country with naked culture.
22:20 December 31, 2009 by wxman
Whether or not she was wearing undies and had fallen asleep on a friend's couch (where a certain amount of expected safety should exist) is not the issue. What he did was invasive and wrong. Otherwise, we imply that the victim is responsible for what happened.
22:56 December 31, 2009 by mcbrazile
this is the problem with law. JohnDee and Suntiger had good points. Offences sometimes cannot be generalised as sexual assault and the like. Like Suntiger said, it leaves too much room for people to act ridiculas. In my opinion, all courts should be more open to the circumstance than the definition. This would seperate the disgusting from the ridiculas. This guy would be charged as a perv or whatever, but the woman outside city hall with the shorts in Suntigers comment would be an oversensitive doosh. It would get rid of a lot of problems like criminals being let off by a technicality or to stop a daft law like this being brought in, if the court had found him guilty of being a perv.

In short, jury's there for a reason.
03:07 January 1, 2010 by Davey-jo
Did he get her slidkrans ?
07:54 January 1, 2010 by Suntiger
@Davey-jo

You mean the virgin halo. ;)

And I doubt it. He might have gotten a kick in the nuts from his wife/partner though - he certainly deserves it.

Hmm, maybe she went without panties because all hers were in the washer?
10:30 January 1, 2010 by jose_s
Was he rewarded some money by the court as well for any stress he might have gone through during the proceedings? Poor man. He should get payed sick leave from work as well. And a new camera..... (sarcasm)
10:53 January 1, 2010 by Da Goat
She was not under aged (at 17 she is old enough for sex but not old enough for law)

and she was on the mans sofa in his house without her knickers lucky she got away so cheaply really!

if he knew the Swedish court system he could have done her and told the court she was there on her own will on his sofa in his house and he may just have walked at best or spent six months in state hotel!

now if he was file sharing the above mentioned photo then he would be up for piracy and porn and would have to spend much longer in state hotel!

now if the RFSU had advised him of his rights/wrongs he would be much happier, maybe he got the first official slidkrans photograph! ROFL
11:52 January 1, 2010 by StockholmSam
As Wxman said, shouldn't lifting her skirt be viewed as assault? He did, after all, lay his hands on her without her consent.

In the end, everyone was being stupid in this situation, but the man should not have been cleared of sexual harassment. Taking a picture of your child in the park and inadvertently getting other kids in the shot is not sexual harassment. Lifting up a girls skirt, no matter her age, when she is sleeping on a couch and taking a picture (or even a peek) is grounds for punishment. I think he should have been heavily fined.
12:16 January 1, 2010 by Marc the Texan
Isn't there a reasonable expectation of privacy under a skirt? I would think that because of the fact that he lifted her skirt or stuck the camera under her skirt would be the criminal part. If she was lying outi n the open exposed, that might be defensible.
13:18 January 1, 2010 by SamisSam
well it all comes down to "lifting her skirt"...i definitely think he denied lifting the skirt and there was no evidence to prove it, otherwise i'm sure he'd have got a punishment. as you can see in the story...he "reportedly lifted the skirt"...that has to be proven!
15:17 January 1, 2010 by DavidtheNorseman
There is a remedy for this. The Government needs to craft laws to ensure the privacy of images taken outside of public places. Now that an image can be broadcast to half a billion or more people in 1/300,000 of a second things have changed.

The laws are behind a bit on the new realities. Swedes net to put pressure on their politicians to get them brought up to date. (I'm betting most Swedes could care less if their nakedness is shared worldwide, but it should be up to the individual's choice - and child porn and its manufacturers should be hunted down and destroyed worldwide.)
21:55 January 1, 2010 by Jim Stewart
Wow, here in the USA a man convicted of this would be sentenced to time in prison and have to registar for life as a sexual predator! His picture and residents would be available to all on the net!

Great place to live if your a predator!!
00:20 January 2, 2010 by AussieAndy
The man and son are just perverts.
07:00 January 2, 2010 by EP
So why was she not wearing any knickers to begin with? She's out ... she should be wearing knickers. The men are perverts, but she was asking for it ...
08:59 January 2, 2010 by ionut
He's a pervert and acts like this should be punished in a healty society.
15:18 January 2, 2010 by visitedonce
The judge is definitely a pervert and probably childless, having more empathy for the perpetrator than the victim. Is that liberal?

Those who say the perp is getting his through 'embarrassment and having his name publicized are very short sighted. The law not only punishes but also teaches. If the law is now that exposing someone pornographically is ok, then what will the rest of the populace learn? They will learn to expose people pornographically. What will happen next? Ex-spouses (or ex-sambos as I believe Swedes call them) will get revenge by using such pictures. it will be become so commonplace that this one perpetrator's 'embarrassment' will no longer be an issue because "everybody is doing it."
15:50 January 2, 2010 by kenny8076
why was her age not a concern? She was 17 right? why is an adult allowed to take upskirt shots of 17 year olds in sweden? why are swedish people so wierd? Why do swedish people tolerate this behavior and short sentencing people get for rape and murder in this country. I have been completly baffled by this culture since i have come here last month. Swedens LAW and government is that of some third world countries........ so wierd
16:31 January 2, 2010 by Ruler4You
Interesting. In the U.S. it's illegal to photograph your own child while bathing them as though it is porn.
20:11 January 2, 2010 by TheDiviner
dingleberrie, have some warm milk, and go back to bed with your photographs.
23:47 January 2, 2010 by wenddiver
I think he is quilty of invasion of privacy (lifted skirt), production of of child pornagraphy (pornographic photgraph of a minor), Assault (physically pulling her skirt away), Contributing to a delinquicy of a Minor (supplying alcohol).

The mere possession of Child Pornagraphy, will land you in FEDERAL Prison in the US, where I gurantee you, that you will meet some pervert, who will create their own memorable sexual moments with you willing or not.

If I was a sexual deginerate I would stay in Sweden.You will be inprisioned, registered, harrassed to the best of our ability in the US.

PS. Young girls Father's tend to own guns also in manny parts of the US, so you might be safer with the other weirdos in prison.
00:00 January 3, 2010 by Taxalien
The judicial system in Sweden is vile. Violation of a young womans privacy, her most private person is nothing to them. Abscond from paying taxes and I am sure they will burn you on the bon fire AND publish your name and photo in Aftonbladet.
01:48 January 3, 2010 by dep
In the USA, this man would be sent to prison, and registered as a sex offender......which he is.......how can a civilized country such as Sweden accept that this is not a crime????
05:12 January 3, 2010 by RoyceD
truly pathetic.
07:15 January 3, 2010 by tyciol
Did this guy actually admit to lifting the skirt, or was it visible in the photo he was doing it or something? Something makes me wonder if it was already hiked up and he just took a photo of it, it's possible.
08:39 January 3, 2010 by geecee61
There was actually no suggestion she was'nt wearing knickers,the wording has made this seem the case,it would seem they were pulled to one side for the photos,never the less should'nt you allowed to feel safe in a friends house without any fear of sexual assault from adults within or is that just too far fetched to contemplate in Sweden,this sicko is without doubt a sexual deviant...this ruling opens the floodgates even wider in this country for perverts to place blame on victims.
10:29 January 3, 2010 by wilkiecollinsiscool
How appalling... to lift the skirt of a minor and then to photograph her genitalia is surely assault and the production of child pornography. An atrocious act. Her alleged lack of undergarments is irrelevant.
20:17 January 3, 2010 by warriorgoddess
nicely done. blaming the minor. She's 17. She has very little common sense and personal responsibility. The 47 year old, on the other hand...

What he did was abuse a minor. His very act of picking up her leg to take the photo is assault. Seems like the judicial system forgot it's supposed to be protecting the victims, not the offenders.

This seriously made me sick to my stomach. And that he wandered around, showing other people, it's a type of emotional rape for that poor girl. And blaming her will only make her even more of a victim. This was a crime, even if they are using one of the dumbest excuses I have ever heard, one of the lowliest of loopholes, to get out of punishing him.

As for him being in trouble with his family and friends, you mean the same friends to whom he showed the picture? You think those guys are going to punish him? More likely they are oogling the picture and slapping him on the back. The wife probably hoped she could laugh it off and is busy making excuses for his disgusting behavior, and the son is probably cornering the girl in school and saying something like 'sluts don't wear panties, right (insert name here).'

There is no self responsibility for the 47 year old, why should this weigh on the 17 yr old's shoulders?
18:21 January 8, 2010 by geofare
I think lingonberrie summed it up perfectly. He more than likely got off because they couldn't prove he had actually lifted up her skirt. If it was a short skirt that flared outward then it more than likely wouldn't have stayed down while sleeping. And why shouldn't he be able to take pictures in his own home? For all we know, the son had asked him to take pictures of the party in general so he could later post them on his myspace/facebook page. That's not uncommon. She was in his home, not wearing any underwear, and of Sweden's legal age. Yet, this is so typical of any society that has been warped by feminism (the U.S. is no different): people view the man as automatically guilty no matter what and the woman is automatically innocent no matter what. The irony is that to not hold women responsible for their own actions and to act like men are supposed to take care of women and be responsible for them is sexist towards women in itself. Further more, what's interesting is, here in the U.S., I've been to plenty of parties in my younger days where my male friends ended up drunk and naked, jumping into the pool or what not and the girls of course all pulled out cameras or camera phones to snap photos. Yet, do we view them as sexist perverts and pigs who are "taking advantage" of these poor men? No, of course not. We hold men responsible for their actions. Yet, I'll say it again, this is typical of any society that has been warped by feminism: when men do X to women it's because their sexist pigs, but when women do X to men it's perfectly okay; they're not viewed as sexist pigs. If the roles had been reversed and the son's mother had snapped a photo of a 17 year old boy who had passed out with his genitals somehow exposed, this would be a non-issue. It's because (and this again is due to feminism) we view women as so much better and more "special" than men that these things elicit the response they do. In my opinion, if they couldn't prove the man lifted her skirt then the court made the right decision.
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