A man diagnosed with ‘sxsomnia’ has been acquitted of r@pe after he told the court he was asleep when he had sx with a woman. On Thursday, Timothy Malcolm Rowland, 40, was found not guilty of having non-consensual sex with a woman at his Sydney apartment on August 26, 2022, after the pair spent a night out together, Mail Online reports. The 40-year-old man told the seven-day jury trial that he was experiencing an episode of sxsomnia, a medical condition where people exhibit sxu@l behaviour during sleep. The not-guilty verdict came hours after jurors sent a series of questions to Judge John Pickering at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court. One inquiry of concern to the judge regarded the consequences of committing crimes while a person was unconscious. ‘This is a really dangerous logic,’ the judge said. A jury should not be determining a case based on laws it wished were in place but instead on the current laws, he warned. Doing this would be unfair on any accused, he said. Someone could not be found guilty of a crime they did unconsciously, Judge Pickering said. ‘We’re not about to punish people for acts that they have no lawful control over.’ There were no current laws, rules or regulations about having sxsomnia or doing something while having the medical condition, the judge said. ”No laws about that exist. There are no criminal offences about that that exist. And it’s not for you to create the law.’ Rowland and the woman went drinking at a cocktail bar in inner-city Darlinghurst on the night of the alleged r@pe, returning to his apartment at about 1am, the jury heard during the trial. Once there, they drank some more and took a naked bath together before the woman fell asleep in Rowland’s bed, the parties agreed. At about 6am, the woman allegedly woke to find Rowland having sx with her before she pushed him off, jumped out of the bed and left the apartment. There was no dispute during the trial that Rowland had sxsomnia. But the issue before the jury was whether he was having an episode at the time of the alleged r@pe or whether he was awake. It was also not in dispute that the woman was asleep when Rowland began having sx with her. Earlier on Thursday, the jury asked what sort of evidence there could be to prove someone was awake. And if there was insufficient evidence, why was the case prosecuted and why did it come before a jury, it asked. Judge Pickering said it was none of his business why the Director of Public Prosecutions had decided to pursue the case in court. It was also not the jury’s responsibility to wonder about these things. Instead, he urged them to look at the evidence before them and determine whether the rape had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. Determining a verdict was a ‘cold-analytical process’ which should not be concerned with how the alleged victim or the community may feel, he said. The post Man with sxsomnia is cleared of r@ping a woman after telling court he was asleepwhen they had sx appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.
