A 17-year-old girl will be prosecuted for using an illegal weapon to fight a man attempting to rape her.
The Danish teenager was walking alone near a migrant asylum center in the coastal town of Sønderborg, Denmark when she was attacked by an English-speaking man. The attacker knocked her to the ground and tried to undress her when the young teen fought back. Using a can of pepper spray, the teen temporarily blinded her attacker and escaped.
After reporting her case to the police, the unidentified woman was told she would be charged with possessing an illegal weapon. Pepper spray is illegal in Denmark and the girl faces a 500 Krone ($80) fine. “It is illegal to possess and use pepper spray, so she will likely to be charged for that,” said police spokesman Knud Kirsten to TV Syd.
The young lady’s attacker fled the scene, it is not yet known if he was a refugee seeking asylum in Denmark. “We do not know who he is, and we do not know if he might be an asylum seeker. The girl has described him as English-speaking. That is all we know,” police spokesperson Helle Lundberg told RT.
Her case has created controversy in Denmark as reports of sexual assault are on the rise. “Self-defense is a human right,” wrote a social media user responding to her case. Many other readers have offered to pay for the girl’s fine themselves hoping to encourage other women to defend themselves by any means necessary.
The Daily Mail reports that several women in Sønderborg reported incidents of sexual harassment from male refugees housed in the local asylum center. Reports of sexual assault at the hands of migrant refugees have been on the rise across Europe over the past year.
Several clubs and bars in Sønderborg have started banning customers who cannot speak Danish, German, or English in an attempt to protect their female patrons. “We have some rules so that our guests can have a pleasant experience and feel safe,” says Tom Holden, the owner and operator of the Buddy Holly night club near the German border.