A man who reportedly suffers from sexsomnia has been sued for wandering into his friend’s bedroom and sexually assaulting the man’s girlfriend.
Sexsomnia is defined as “a condition characterised by engaging in sexual acts while asleep.”
Dale Kelly, who was arraigned before the York Crown Court sexually touched his friend’s girlfriend after he sleep-walked into their second-floor apartment, Yahoo has reported.
The defendant claimed that he was unconscious when he walked into the couple’s bedroom, climbed into their bed and started touching the woman intimately.
Kelly is also known to suffer from parasomnia, a condition that involves abnormal movements or behaviours, including sleepwalking.
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In his defence, Kelly — from Dalton-le-Dale in County Durham — explained that he had had an outing on the day of the incident, but that he returned to his friend’s house in North Yorkshire at around 5am.
About an hour later, his friend’s girlfriend found him in the bed she shared with her lover, who happened to be Kelly’s friend.
The court was told how Kelly would have had to have climbed up two flights of stairs from where he had been sleeping in order to access the room.
The victim said she believed Kelly had sexually assaulted her, while Kelly said he had been asleep and had thought he was with a woman he had been dating.
At his trial, Kelly was accused of sexual assault by penetration, but he was found “not guilty” because he is believed to be insane.
A jury ruled that Kelly had committed the act, but was not responsible for his actions as he was suffering from a rare sleep disorder which he suffered from since he was a child.
The judge advised him to seek medical treatment for his condition
