Outrage in Denmark after 17yo girl faces fine for protecting herself from sexual assault

A 17-year-old Danish girl who said she was sexually harassed in Denmark now faces a fine for using pepper spray against her attacker. The man who pulled her to the ground and tried to undress her fled the scene without any charges.

The incident took place in the center of the small town of Sonderborg in southern Denmark at about 22:00 local time Wednesday. The teenager told police that an English-speaking man knocked her to the ground, tried to unbutton her pants and undress her.

However, she was apparently able to protect herself as she pulled out pepper spray and used it against the man.

The sexual attacker escaped the scene of the incident and hasn’t been charged.

Police say that the girl may face a fine.

“It is illegal to possess and use pepper spray, so she will likely be charged for that,” local police spokesman Knud Kirsten said, as cited by TV Syd.

The girl’s fine could reportedly be about 500 kroner ($72), The Local said.

The incident sparked outrage in social media. Readers of the story on TV Syd’s website said they were ready to pay the girl’s fine.

“It is so completely and terribly wrong with the Danish system… Self-defense is a human right,” wrote one user, while another ironically added: “Perhaps the offender must seek compensation…Have we become mad in Denmark?”

Sonderborg, along with other Danish cities, recently appeared in the news in connection with sexual assaults against women by migrants.

“We must say that a large number of the male guests who come from the local asylum center have a very hard time respecting the opposite sex. In my eyes, it is harassment when one or more men continue to touch a young woman after she has said ‘stop,’” Glenn Hollender, from the Sonderborg club Den Flyvende Hollænder, told TV Syd earlier in January.

Sexual harassment of women by refugees in Europe is the main issue that has been making headlines since the New Year.

The first city to report about mass sexual harassment was Cologne, Germany. According to witnesses, “heavily intoxicated” men of “Arab or North African” were sexually harassing local women in the city center on New Year’s Eve.

Similar cases have been reported in other German cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Police were also accused of covering up migrant attacks in Sweden, after groups of young Afghan men reportedly molested girls at a teen music festival.