Sleep-raping defence knocked down in court

It’s good news for Canadian women, after a judge ruled last week that claiming to be asleep is actually not a defence for rape.

There have been some horrible cases recently in the United Kingdom of men getting away with raping women because they claim to have “sexsomnia” - a condition where they carry out “indecent” acts in their sleep.

In one case, the victim was a 15-year-old girl, and in another a woman was raped in front of her 9-year-old daughter, and still the guys walked.

These men have no medical history of sleepwalking - which is odd, cause if I was, say, setting things on fire in my sleep, I think I’d see a doctor about some meds.

Canada has it’s own case of successful “sexsomnia” defence after Toronto landscaper, Jan Luedecke, was acquitted of sexual assault when a judge accepted that he was totally asleep when he put on a condom and attacked a slumbering woman after a party in 2003.

Having rape not be considered sexual assault in court because the rapist “doesn’t remember” doing it, sets a very troubling precedent.

What’s to stop any man charged with sexual assault from claiming he was sleep-raping?

But on to the good news, last week that crap didn’t stand up in a Canadian court!

“Madam Justice Kathryn McKerlie curtly rejected testimony from a Toronto sleep specialist known as the “father” of sexsomnia, Colin Shapiro, saying he was a wholly unreliable witness who had speculated in areas that went well beyond his expertise.”

Let’s hear it for Madam Justice Kathryn McKerlie, who of Friday convicted Brandon Teepell of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman at a party in 2005.

“She said it was impossible to believe Mr. Teepell’s claim that he had no memory of events between when he fell asleep alongside his fiancée, and when he later awoke on top of the complainant - with his fiancée screaming and yanking at his hair.”

It’s also hard to believe he could sleepwalk through an unfamiliar place while carrying the victim. Or that he was still asleep when he “offered the complainant verbal reassurances to keep her calm during his attack”.

One in four Canadian women will be sexually assaulted in her life, only 6 per cent of those will be reported to police. Very few of those cases will make it to court and fewer still will result in a conviction.

So the last thing we need to add to that is a "I was sleeping" get out of jail free card.