Charges of indecent assault have been dropped against a man because he was sleep walking.
Tristan Scott, from Wellington, was accused of indecently assaulting two teenage girls. He had been drinking prior to the incident, however his lawyer claimed he suffered from sexsomnia, NZME reports.
Sexsomnia is also known as sleep sex and is a condition where people engage in sex acts while they are asleep.
District Court judge Jim Large accepted there had been an assault on the two girls, but not because Scott was drunk but because he was sleep walking.
The teenage girls’ mother told NZME the verdict was atrocious. The girls has woken to find Scott touching them.
“For me he got drunk to the point he did things he shouldn’t have,” she told NZME.
There have been a number of cases where parasomnia, which includes sexsomnia, has been used as a defence.
In 2015 a 42-year-old man was found guilty of raping his wife, he had used sexsomnia as a defence.
Newshub
