Man cleared of child abuse after claiming he was asleep when he made girl touch his genitals

Judge who opposed decision overruled

The case was heard at Uppsala District Court, north of Stockholm (Getty Images)

A court has cleared a man of child abuse after it could not be proved that he was awake at the time.

The man, who was 35 years old at the time of the incident, was alleged to have forced an eight-year-old girl to perform a sex act on him.

However, he walked free following a ruling by Uppsala District Court, north of Stockholm, Sweden.

The girl had described in court how she could see the whites of the man’s eyes as he took her hand and placed it on his genitals.

She also told of how he had taken hold of her hand again after she tried pulling it back.

The girl was sleeping in the same bed as her mother, and the accused man, who was her mother’s boyfriend at the time, the court was told, reported Swedish legal news site Dagens Juridik.

The court was told: "He took her hand and put it around his penis.

"He held her wrist and pulled her hand up and down. She pretended to sleep. She turned away.

“He grabbed her hand again and continued in the same way. This may have repeated once more.”

Despite accepting that the girl’s version of events took place, the court decided that it could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the man had not been asleep at the time.

"The prosecutor has not succeeded in proving that [the man] has committed the act with intent," reported Dagens Juridik.

Swedish courts do not usually use juries in criminal or civil cases.

The decision was made by a legally trained chair judge and three lay judges, who do not have legal training.

The chair judge disagreed with the decision but was overruled by the three others.

In a justification of its position, the court wrote: "There is no reason to believe that the plaintiff knowingly made false statements about this. It is not possible to rule out that she may have been mistaken.

“It is also impossible to ignore the fact that [the accused], although his eyes were open, may have been sleeping when he committed the act.”

The girl’s legal representatives disagreed with the decision and are considering appeal.

"It is regrettable. The ruling is evidently incorrect, and I agree with the chairman who dissented, and note that it is a lay-judge verdict," said the child’s lawyer, Silvia Ingolfsdottir Åkermark, to Swedish current affairs programme Brottscentralen.