Iceland court gives suspended sentences for assault caught on camera

A district court in eastern Iceland has given two men suspended prison sentences for an assault outside a nightclub, with surveillance footage playing a key role in the case, mbl.is reports.

One man received a six-month sentence for a particularly dangerous assault after kicking the victim in the head. The victim lost consciousness and fell face-first onto the asphalt. The second man was sentenced to 45 days for kicking the victim three times in the back while he lay motionless. Both sentences are suspended for two years.

The ruling was issued on 3 November. The men were charged with carrying out a particularly dangerous assault together, but the court found there was not enough evidence to prove they had acted in concert. Each was held responsible for his own actions.

The incident took place in 2024 in a car park outside a nightclub. Both defendants denied the charges. The court said it could establish the events only to a limited extent from witness and defendant testimony, as the men and the victim had been heavily intoxicated. Its findings therefore relied substantially on surveillance footage.

The court found that the victim and the man who later kicked him in the back had initially been willing participants in a fight. The victim had a physical advantage, and the other man was largely unable to defend himself until the co-defendant joined the altercation.

Footage showed the co-defendant kicking the victim in the face, causing him to fall face-first onto the asphalt. The second man then kicked him three times in the back while he lay still.

The court found that the kick to the head was the main cause of the victim losing consciousness and hitting the ground. It also caused injuries including concussion and dental damage. The court said the man who delivered the kick should have understood that it could have serious consequences and put the victim at particular risk.

The court did not find that the second man’s kicks caused the injuries described in the indictment or created a particular danger. The footage did not show significant force in the kicks, so he was convicted under a less serious assault provision.

The second man argued that he had acted in self-defence. The court accepted that he had initially been in a vulnerable position, but found that this was no longer the case once the victim was unconscious on the ground.

Neither man had previously been convicted of an offence, and the court said neither was responsible for delays in the case. It treated the danger and injuries caused by the kick to the head as aggravating factors for the first man, and kicking the helpless victim as an aggravating factor for the second.

The man who kicked the victim in the head was ordered to pay 748,755 Icelandic krónur in compensation and damages, plus interest. The second man was ordered to pay 300,000 krónur of that amount jointly with him.