Appeals court acquits man after five-year rape sentence

Iceland’s Court of Appeal has acquitted a man of rape, overturning a five-year prison sentence imposed by Reykjavik District Court, mbl.is reported. A majority of the appeal judges found it had not been proved that he intentionally had sexual relations with the woman without her consent.

The district court had also ordered the man to pay the woman 2.5 million krónur in compensation. The Court of Appeal dismissed her compensation claim. Legal costs at both court levels will be paid by the state. One of the three appeal judges dissented and wanted to uphold the district court’s ruling.

The case concerned an incident at the man’s home in Reykjavik on the morning of April 10, 2023. He was accused of using violence and unlawful coercion to engage in sexual acts other than intercourse with the woman without her consent. The indictment said he repeatedly hit her in the face, grabbed her by the throat, put a pillow over her face and pressed a knee against her upper chest. It listed fractured ribs, hearing loss and injuries to her head, neck and back among her injuries.

The man argued that they had agreed to have BDSM sex and that the violence he used had been consensual. The appeal court said consent to sexual activity involving objectively violent acts must be given clearly and unambiguously, and cannot be assumed from a lack of objection.

The majority found that messages between the pair on Instagram showed the woman had clearly indicated she was willing to try rough sex with him. It also accepted that they had discussed boundaries at his home and agreed on a safe word. The judges concluded she had consented to being hit and grabbed by the throat, and said it had not been proved that her consent was limited to those acts or subject to specific conditions. The prosecution bore the burden of that lack of proof.

Reykjavik District Court had convicted the man in October 2025, finding that the violence went beyond what the woman had agreed to. It considered her testimony credible and consistent in its main points.