A Dutch court on Tuesday handed a man a suspended jail sentence for secretly removing a condom during sex in the country's first conviction for "stealthing", but cleared him of rape.
The 28-year-old pleaded guilty to coercion at Rotterdam court after taking off the sheath without warning, despite the woman saying in advance that she did not want to have sex without it.
"This action is also called 'stealthing'," the court said in a statement.
"In this way he exposed her to contracting sexually transmitted diseases and an unwanted pregnancy."
The Syrian-born suspect sent the victim texts afterwards including one that said "you will be fine".
But judges ruled it was not rape as there was "agreement between the suspect and the complainant about the sexual penetration", and the coercion only related to the failure to use a condom.
He was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence and a 1,000 euro fine.
In a separate case, judges cleared a 25-year-old man after finding that he had not removed a condom at any time, but had instead failed to put one on in the heat of the moment.
Dutch law has no specific offence against "stealthing" but these were the first rulings on the practice, public broadcaster NOS said, adding that there had been similar rulings in countries including Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand.
The US state of California also made the practice illegal in 2021.