Many people have sexual fantasies that go beyond cuddling and making out in the marital bed – and that’s perfectly fine as long as everyone involved voluntarily participates in living out those fantasies. Whether it’s visits to the swingers club, to the dominatrix, to threesomes or to fetishes of all kinds, as long as nothing and no one is harmed, hardly anyone today begrudges their love life, no matter how unusual it may be. But as soon as the limits of consent are violated, it is no longer about sex – then we are talking about rape.
Just like in a case that was just heard before the Munich II Regional Court. A woman met a 39-year-old man for consensual sex – both wanted to play so-called “rape games”, i.e. a kind of simulated rape. With an emphasis on “simulated” because so that nothing would actually happen that contradicted the will of those involved, they agreed on a safe word. If one of them said “Black Heart”, the act should be stopped immediately.
At first, the 39-year-old stuck to it. During one meeting, however, he ignored both the safe word and other clear stop signals from the woman, tied her up, whipped her with a leather whip and severely raped her. She filed a complaint against the perpetrator.
The man admitted the crimes in court and paid the woman compensation as part of a perpetrator-victim settlement. His defense therefore considered a suspended sentence to be sufficient. However, the court saw it differently: the rape was particularly serious and the relationship of trust between the perpetrator and the victim had been exploited. The man was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. However, an appeal can still be lodged.
Sources: Munich Higher Regional Court
