Academic Wanted Criminal Charges Against Ex-Girlfriend for "Sex in Exchange for Support" — Constitutional Court Says No

The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint from a male academic who was seeking criminal prosecution of his former partner. According to his version of events, the woman deceived him into giving her gifts and hid the fact that she had a new relationship, all so she could keep living in his flat — a flat he ultimately had to move out of himself, in disgrace.

Besides fraud, the man also accused his ex-partner of extortion, claiming she had threatened to sell his kidney. In his complaint, he laid out an entire list of such criminal-law allegations.

Police and prosecutors found no crime

Police looked into the case and closed it, finding no evidence of a crime. The Prague prosecutor's office, which the man subsequently approached, reached the same conclusion.

"What he described is nothing more than a mutually dysfunctional relationship between two adults. The relationship wasn't built on mutual affection but on mutual benefit: he provided for her financially in exchange for sex," prosecutors stated.

According to the prosecutor's office, the former partner did not manipulate the man or pressure him in any way. On the contrary, it was he who reached out to her after the breakup and kept giving her gifts. "The authorities conducting criminal proceedings cannot solve his personal relationship problems for him," they emphasized.

Constitutional Court: he simply misjudged the person

Unsatisfied with the ruling, the academic filed an extensive complaint with the Constitutional Court, accusing the police and prosecutors of a whole series of violations. Among other things, he argued that the authorities had failed to consider a possible "trauma bond" — a person's dependency on someone who harms them.

However, the panel led by reporting judge Zdeněk Kühn showed little sympathy for the complainant's grievances. "The Constitutional Court has doubts as to whether his claims can even be defended. The problem lies in their credibility and plausibility. We do not wish to belittle the applicant's situation, but his one-sided, after-the-fact interpretation of the former relationship casts doubt on his account," Kühn wrote in the published ruling.

"If the applicant claims he lost a significant sum of money, he ended up in that situation of his own free will — it was he who voluntarily showered his partner with gifts. The fact that he misjudged the person does not give grounds for criminal prosecution of this woman. Criminal law is not a tool that former partners can use to make each other's personal lives more difficult," the judge concluded.

Source: novinky.cz