Sleeping Angels

Last week a friend emailed me something he had seen on the internet about a court case that had come before the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, Australia last summer. A 48 year old man who stood accused of "gross indecency and intercourse without consent" with a female houseguest, pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming that he was not aware of what he was doing at the time, and was actually suffering from a form of parasomnia known as "sexsomnia". A person suffering from this disorder, according to his lawyers and an expert witness who was brought in to testify on his behalf, has a tendency to engage in sexual activities while asleep, without being at all aware of what he is doing. 

The jury took less than an hour to find the defendant not guilty. Read More