Asylum seeker convicted of raping paralysed woman

An Iraqi asylum seeker has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the rape of a partially paralysed woman in Vantaa in 2022, the Helsinki Court of Appeal ruled on 29 June.

The court described the crime as cruel and humiliating, citing the victim’s health condition and the nature of the act. Fahad Firas Adday Al-Nuaimi, who worked as the woman’s home care assistant, committed the rape just days after starting the job.

Al-Nuaimi claimed the victim had wanted sex and answered the door naked, but the court dismissed his account as implausible given the victim’s partial paralysis.

In 2015, Al-Nuaimi made headlines after lying about his age to then-Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, falsely claiming to be a minor to access housing and services reserved for underage asylum seekers.

Similar cases have emerged elsewhere in Finland. Last year, Häme Police investigated two instances of suspected sexual abuse against elderly care recipients, while Eastern Uusimaa Police examined two cases in the Vantaa-Kerava welfare region in 2023. In 2022, a care worker in Nakkila was sentenced to over four years for raping an elderly resident.

Sweden has also seen a rise in such crimes. Reports by Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, Aftonbladet, and Swedish public broadcaster SVT describe a growing problem of rapes and serious sexual offences committed by caregivers, often targeting defenceless or dementia-stricken women, some over 90. Between 2021 and 2025, 400 women over 60 were raped in Sweden, with many cases believed to go unreported.