From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 27 minutes ago, updated 16 minutes ago
The appeal court acquitted the defendant, saying it could not conclude that the man had penetrated her vagina based on the use of the word “Snippa.” Maria / stock.adobe.com
A debate over the word “snippa”, introduced in 2000 as a neutral term to destigmatise female genitalia, led to the acquittal of a man accused of raping a 10-year-old child.
Sweden’s Supreme Court on Friday, November 17, overturned the decision of an appeals court that acquitted a man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl because it was unclear what the meaning of the word the victim used to her vagina was designated.
The girl had used the word “Snippa,” which was invented by the Swedish Sexuality Education Association (RFSU) in the early 2000s and introduced as a neutral and simple term in kindergartens to destigmatize female genitalia.
It is said to be the female equivalent of the word “snopp,” which refers to the male genitals and is now part of everyday Swedish language. At the end of September 2022, the court in Halmstad, in the southwest of the country, found the man in his 50s, whose name was not published, guilty of rape because he put his hand down the girl’s pants and touched her vagina.
But last February an appeals court acquitted the man, saying it could not determine with certainty what the girl was referring to when she used the word “Snippa.” By dictionary definition, this term refers to the external parts of the female genitals, but in common usage it refers to the entire vagina and not just the vulva.
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“I know what a snippa is”
Despite the girl’s statement that the man’s fingers were “in” her “snippa”, the appeal court said it could not conclude that the man had penetrated her vagina based on the use of that word. In order to be convicted of rape, penetration must be proven.
The appeals court ruling sparked a scandal in the legal world and shocked health officials and the public. Several protests took place across Sweden, with the hashtag #jagvetvadensnippaär (“I know what a snippa is”) going viral on social media.
On Friday, the Supreme Court reversed that ruling and sent the case back to a new panel of the same appeals court. “The court is not limited to the criminal qualification that the prosecutor maintains and presents, but to the description of the alleged facts,” emphasized the Scandinavian country’s highest court.
In this particular case, the Court of Appeal decided that it was proven that the man touched the little girl’s genitals and therefore should have taken into account other criminal qualifications (not requiring penetration) as a prerequisite for conviction, the Supreme Court continues.
It should have been clear to the appeal court “that a different criminal provision could have been applied, such as that of sexual abuse of a child,” said Judge Stefan Johansson, for example.
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