Man rapes 17-year-old, but escapes prison

An unusual verdict has been handed down by the Greenland High Court. A man in his late 20s has been exceptionally sentenced to 120 hours of community service for raping a girl in Nuuk, and the man can thus avoid prison altogether. The girl was 17 years old at the time of the crime in 2021.

Thus, the rapist received a significantly milder sentence in the High Court than in the Sermersooq District Court, which had sentenced him to six months in prison.

The High Court's verdict was handed down on October 23, 2025. Sermitsiaq was not present in court and only later became aware that the case had an outcome that was unusual for a rape. Unconditional detention is the very common measure for that crime.

But that is not how it should be here, and this is justified by the long processing time of the case. The case thus focuses on a problem that Sermitsiaq has also previously described. We will return to this after a summary of the specific case.

High Court changed the measure

The rape took place on the night between August 1 and 2, 2021. The man in question was visiting Nuuk and was at one point alone with the 17-year-old girl.

The man later told the court that he had not had sex for a long time and therefore could not resist the temptation. He took off her panties and had his hands and penis on her breasts and genitals. The girl said that she froze in the situation and lost consciousness.

Both the district court and the high court convicted the man of rape by intercourse other than sexual intercourse. He was also found guilty of attempted rape by intercourse. An attempt that failed when the girl came to her senses and resisted him. The man claimed that he himself chose to refrain from sexual intercourse. The high court did not believe that.

The High Court thus agreed with the district court on the issue of rape, but reached a much milder measure: 120 hours of community service. The man must also pay 45,000 in compensation to the girl.

But he doesn't have to spend a single day in prison. And that's because it took a long time from the time the girl reported the man to the police until he received his final sentence in the High Court – four years and two days to be exact.

As previously described in Sermitsiaq, some court cases in Greenland take a very long time to process, and this problem leads, among other things, to lighter sentences. A long case processing time can trigger a discount on the measure, as long as the delays are not caused by the convicted person themselves.

However, Sermitsiaq has not previously been aware of a case involving the rape of a young person under 18 that has taken four years. Such cases are often prioritized by the legal system and resolved significantly faster. But that was not the case this time.

Long waiting times for several reasons

It appears from the court documents that the rape was reported on October 21, 2021, but the indictment did not reach the circuit court until July 5, 2024.

Sermitsiaq has therefore contacted the Greenland Police to find out why the case from Nuuk took so long to reach the courts. It was not possible to get an answer.

– One of the Greenland Police's biggest priorities is cases involving abuse against children and young people. However, there can be many reasons why a case can drag on in terms of investigation. Since I cannot go into individual cases, I cannot go into more detail about the specific case, says Chief Prosecutor Mariam Khalil.

– We are still working very hard to achieve the goal of shorter case processing times for all criminal cases, including especially cases against children and young people, but we are not quite there yet, she writes further.

In August 2025, the Danish government pledged an additional 850 million kroner to the Greenlandic justice system over the next four years. The new funds will go towards, among other things, more police and more prosecutors.

The consequences of the long case processing times at both the Greenland Police and the courts in Greenland will, however, be felt for some time into the future, says the Chief Prosecutor.