Italian could face 3 years in prison for raping woman in Amsterdam on during King's Day
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) recommended three years in prison against 27-year-old Sirio S. from Italy for raping a woman on the street in Amsterdam during the King’s Day festivities in April. According to the OM, there is plenty of evidence that the victim did not want to have sex with S., the Telegraaf reports from the courtroom.
During the King’s Day festivities in Amsterdam on April 26, bystanders saw S. on top of a woman between parked cars on Keizersgracht. They shouted at him to get off of her, but he didn’t listen. A group of women eventually pulled him off the woman. A video of the incident was widely shared on social media.
Footage gathered by authorities shows that the woman was already unsteady on her feet when she encountered S. at around 6:30 p.m. By the time the other women pulled S. off of her, she was barely conscious. An ambulance took her to a hospital.
The victim, a woman from Ireland, hadn’t had a drink in a while, but did drink on that day. She can’t remember what happened, but afterward said that she definitely did not want to have sex with S. on the street. It is unclear whether she was drugged. The hospital didn’t check for that.
S. was arrested in Amsterdam, his place of residence, two days after the incident. The man has no criminal record, but he had six run-ins with the Dutch police in the period leading up to King’s Day. Among other things, the police reprimanded him for masturbating in a café and found him walking along a canal in his underwear, hypothermic.
S. was struggling to find work and had recently become homeless. He was previously diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but later stopped taking his medication.
In court, the man acknowledged his guilt and remorse. He should have realized that the woman didn’t want to have sex with him and blamed his failure to do so on his alcohol consumption. He also placed some of the responsibility on women, to the all-female court’s astonishment. “I drink too much, that’s weak. But women do that too,” he said.
The OM wasn’t impressed by S.’s statements. He had sex with someone who was incapable of deciding whether she wanted to or not. The fact that he was also under the influence is not a mitigating factor, the prosecutor said. As the person performing the sexual acts, he was responsible for ensuring that his partner consented. He didn’t, so it’s rape, and that deserves a hefty sentence, the prosecutor said. The fact that it happened in a crowded place where people could film it is an aggravating factor, the prosecutor said.
S.’s lawyer asked the court to acquit her client in full. She stressed that both parties were intoxicated and could only remember fragments of the day. S., the lawyer said, never intended to harm the victim.
According to the lawyer, this case is about something larger, namely, how sex between two heavily intoxicated people should be treated under the new sexual offenses laws. She argued that in these kinds of situations, behavior isn’t always punishable.
