A man has been fined after admitting he drugged his then-girlfriend so that she wouldn’t interrupt him while he played computer games with a friend.
The unnamed 23-year-old placed the sedative in a drink for his girlfriend after she returned to their North Rhine-Westphalia home in August last year, the Local reports.
The woman slept until midday after drinking the drugged tea and then drove to work, though she later told the court she was “nodding off again and again.”
The man wanted to continue his game undisturbed (file picture)
According to Germany newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the man, who was ordered to pay a €500 fine told the court in Castrop-Rauxel: “I only put four or five drops in her tea.”
The judge told him: “Your girlfriend slept long and deeply, which didn’t harm her, but this is certainly a premeditated bodily harm.”
The couple have since split – though for unrelated reasons.
There is a broad consensus among medical professionals that video games can be compulsive, in a broad sense, and that like most pursuits when taken to extremes can potentially be detrimental.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- a standard reference text, though one which has come into criticism -- lists "internet gaming disorder" as a condition "warranting more clinical research and experience" but says:
"Further research will determine if the same patterns of excessive online gaming are detected using the proposed criteria. At this time, the criteria for this condition are limited to Internet gaming and do not include general use of the Internet, online gambling, or social media."