STOCKHOLM, Sweden, March 23 (UPI) -- A Swedish man accused of raping a woman who was sleeping off a night of heavy drinking says he was also asleep at the time.
The man, 27, was indicted Thursday on a rape charge, the Swedish news agency TT and The Local reported. The alleged assault took place in a summer cabin in Vilhelmina in northern Sweden in June 2011.
The defendant told investigators he fell asleep and was wakened by the woman pushing at him, the newspaper Aftonbladet reported. He said he suffers from somnambulism or sleepwalking and sexsomnia, and a former girlfriend had told him of sexual encounters they had that he could not remember.
"I was awakened by her pushing me away and asking, 'Are you awake?'" the man said when he was questioned.
In 2007, a man, 38, was acquitted of molesting a young girl while he was asleep. Another man won an appeal in 2011 after being convicted at his initial trial.
