GLOSTRUP, Denmark, April 11 (UPI) -- A Danish court has dismissed a rape charge against a man who said he was asleep when he molested two teenage girls.
A judge in Glostrup District Court in suburban Copenhagen ruled Wednesday the man's diagnosed sexsomnia, a disorder that causes its victims to engage in sexual acts while asleep, means he is not legally liable, the Copenhagen Post reported.
"It is the first time that someone has been acquitted under these circumstances in Denmark," lawyer Andro Vrlic told the news agency Ritzau. "There have been a couple of cases in Sweden and Norway."
Two 17-year-old girls said the man, 32, molested them. Police arrested him after he said he did not remember his actions.
Martin von Bulow, the prosecutor, said the man was only diagnosed after his arrest.
"According to his explanation, he did not know that there was anything wrong with him," von Bülow, told the tabloid newspaper Ekstra Bladet. "But when former girlfriends told him that they had experienced something similar while he slept, he sought out a sleep specialist."
