'‘Stealthing’ is when a sexual partner removes a condom during sex non-consensually, and is considered rape by UK law.'
a woman was convicted of stealthingThe 39-year-old was handed an six-month suspended sentence after admitting to developing feelings for the man who wanted a ‘casual’ relationship, and sabotaging the condoms in order to fall pregnant with his child.
Though stealthing is illegal in the UK, there has only been one widely known successful prosecution of it in Britain, despite stories of women being victims of non-consensual condom removal peppering internet forums and the press in recent years. A 2018 Australian survey found that both one in three women and one in five men who have sex with men had experienced stealthing. Some respondents had admitted to contracting STIs and HIV afterwards, though the study couldn’t directly link it with the sexual assault.Sadly, despite this obvious breach of both the law and trust, only 1% of male and female respondents reported the event to the police, despite most of them being ‘emotionally distressed’ afterwards.
Out of those that even made it to court, a disgusting 1.3% ended up in prosecution – on average seven and a half years after the offence had taken place. Sit back and let that sink in, just for a second.