Appeal court gives man prison term for offences against four women
Thursday 12th November 2026 on 23:15 in
Iceland
Iceland’s Court of Appeal has increased a man’s sentence for sexual offences against four women to nine months in prison, with three months to be served immediately, mbl.is reported. Reykjavik District Court had sentenced him to eight months, all suspended.
The Court of Appeal upheld his convictions for three offences against decency and one count of sexual harassment. It also increased compensation by 200,000 Icelandic krónur for each woman, bringing the total from 2.1 million to 2.9 million krónur, plus interest.
The offences took place in July and December 2023 and in two incidents in July 2024. The women were walking alone when the man approached them in his car.
In one incident, he stopped beside a woman and persuaded her to come to his car. When she reached the window, he showed her a pornographic video on his phone. In another, he showed a woman a sexual video, masturbated and asked her to help him. She immediately reported the incident to police and gave them the car’s registration number. He was arrested about 20 minutes later.
In a third incident, he exposed himself and masturbated until the woman ran away. In the fourth, he drove beside a woman at night, called out to her and then got out of the car with his genitals exposed. He pursued her both by car and on foot despite her repeatedly asking him to leave her alone. She ran away and later described being very frightened.
The man denied the charges and sought to be acquitted on appeal. The prosecution sought a heavier sentence. He argued that information about the separate incidents could have influenced the women’s accounts of one another’s cases, and criticised the use of social media to help identify him and the lack of a formal identification procedure. He also said there had been no adequate technical examination of his phone to confirm it contained pornography.
The Court of Appeal said the District Court had assessed each charge independently. It had found the women’s accounts consistent and credible, and supported by other evidence, including video footage, information from police surveillance systems and testimony from people who saw the women distressed after the incidents.