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A Swedish court acquitted a man of rape after it was proved he committed the act while asleep.

ABC News reported that 26-year old Mikael Halvarsson allegedly assaulted the complainant on April 2 this year when they had been sleeping in the same bed. The complainant woke up to discover she was assaulted and complained to the police in the morning. When cops arrived, they found Halvarsson sleeping in the bed.  

Performing sexual acts while asleep without awareness of behavior or surroundings is described as Sexsomnia. It is classified a sleep disorder like sleep-talking and sleep-walking. Though rare, it is a condition where a person usually has no memory of performing the act.

For Halvarsson the complaint brought on him a two-year prison sentence after conviction. Later in his appeal Halvarsson said he was suffering from Sexsomnia. A medical expert also testified in the defendant's favor, The Guardian reported. The Appeals Court in Sundsvall, Sweden, overturned the conviction.

ABC News further reported that the court decided to acquit Halvarsson when his mother confirmed her son suffered from sleep-related problems. A former partner of the man also testified that he tried to have sex with her on one occasion when she was asleep but he seemed consumed when she woke him up.

While maintaining that Sexsomnia is a sleep-related disorder, experts warn it could be misused by criminals to evade law after consciously committing a crime.

"You want to know how people react to it. You want to know what the people look like and want to know how each partner reacts to it. You don't want to encourage unwanted sexual advances," Dr. Kingman Strohl of Cleveland Case Medical Center's Sleep Center, told ABC News.

He said that those who act while asleep usually are unresponsive to their surroundings and their actions are not refined.