The Canadian Supreme Court upheld the sexual assault conviction of a man who pierced holes in condoms he used during sex with his girlfriend.
The nation’s top court unanimously rejected Craig Jaret Hutchinson’s appeal, ruling that he deprived his girlfriend of the ability to consent to sex by surreptitiously sabotaging the condom.
His girlfriend, whose identity is protected by publication laws, became pregnant as a result of the sabotage. After Hutchinson only then told her, in text messages, what he had done, she called the police and had an abortion.
“A person consents to how she will be touched, and she is entitled to decide what sexual activity she agrees to engage in for whatever reason she wishes,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Thomas Cromwell wrote on behalf of the court.
[CBC]
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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com