The Liege Correctional Court on Wednesday sentenced a 43-year-old man from Hannover to one year’s probation for committing an attack on a woman’s sexual integrity.
The court said the defendant, who was riding his bike on a path, had given a young woman a ‘sporting’ slap of encouragement on the buttocks while she was jogging on a road in Hannut on 19 October 2020. He administered the slap while riding past the jogger, who was shocked by the attack on her sexual integrity.
The defendant, a regular in sports circles, admitted that it had not been his best idea ever to make such a gesture towards a young woman he did not know. He told the court that it had been a friendly gesture of encouragement, customary in sports groups between sportsmen and women who know and see each other regularly.
However, it was “a gesture of encouragement that society cannot accept,” the defendant’s lawyer stressed.
The court imposed one-year’s probation on the accused or six months in prison if the probation is violated.
