Swedish high court overrules lower court 'no vagina, no rape' acquittal of man who raped trans woman

Swedish Göta Court of Appeal (Photo: Jon Koping)

THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — The man who violently raped a trans woman has been found guilty by the Swedish Göta Court of Appeal and sentenced to 15 months in jail. The court reversed an earlier ‘no vagina, no rape’ ruling from a lower court.

Prosecutor Eva Grandestedt: ‘This ruling shows that you can be convicted for attempted rape regardless of the gender identity of the victim.’

The previous lower court ruling left the trans community in an uproar over the seeming lack of logic in the decision but Swedish legal experts hinted that a higher court would likely convict the man.

While the Swedish system of justice may appear to be unusual, in the end, justice was served on behalf of the trans woman who was raped.

I wrote about the lower court ruling for The Huffington Post last July:

At first glance this appears to be something right out the tabloids, but Örebro District Court Judge Dan Sjöstedt ruled that the planned rape by the attacker would have been impossible to carry out in the absence of a vagina. The attacker was instead charged with a considerably lesser crime.

According to a Swedish news report translated into English, the attacker brutally beat the victim and ripped off her pants in an attempt to rape her. A witness rushed to the scene and intervened. The police came and arrested the attacker.

While the Örebro District Court is convinced that the man was actually trying to rape the woman, they ruled that it was in fact a (cisgender) woman the man wanted to rape, not a “physical man,” and although the court considered the fact that the victim had undergone hormone therapy to change gender, it still ruled that there was no completed rape.

Read the rest of the article here: http://lexiecannes.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/courtney-odonnell-swedish-judge-rules-man-not-guilty-of-attempted-rape-of-trans-woman-because-she-has-no-vagina/

Justice serves in Swedish trans rape case | Gay Star News.

Swedish Göta Court of Appeal (Photo: Jon Koping)

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Filed under: Judicial, Courts, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans, Violence, Hate, Örebro District Court, Eva Grandestedt, Göta Court, Judge Dan Sjöstedt, sweden