A man who was originally charged with assault against a nine-year-old boy for repeated “ding dong dash” incidents has had those charges dropped in Reykjavík District Court today.
According to Morgunblaðið, the boy had been ringing the doorbell of the man and running away, off and on since October 2009. In January 2010, after another such incident, the man ran out of his house and chased the boy, allegedly pushing him to the ground and holding him by the neck, threatening to spank him. The man then took the boy into his home, and held him there against his will until his father arrived to pick him up.
The parents filed charges against the man, and he was charged with assault, false imprisonment, and violations of the Child Protection Law. The parents also demanded the man pay 1 million ISK in damages.
In the end, however, the assault and violating child protection law charges were rejected by the court. The man, telling his side of the story, explained that when he caught up to the boy, he did not push him – they both fell. He also denied gripping the boy by the neck, but said that he took him by the scruff of the collar of his sweater back to his home. In addition, he claimed that he did not hold the boy prisoner, but that as the man was only in his socks, he was looking for his shoes before taking the boy home, but the boy’s father arrived before the shoes were found.
The court decided that the man did not cross the line in his behaviour, but that he did hold the boy against his will. For this, he was told to pay 100,000 ISK in damages.
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