Berlin court set to rule today on man accused of drugging and raping women
A 69-year-old is accused of sedating, raping and filming 14 women. Prosecutors are seeking 13 years in prison followed by preventive detention.
Symbolic image · Photo: Gerd Eichmann / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
A Berlin regional court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of a series of rapes committed while his victims were sedated. Both defense lawyers are due to give closing arguments first on the 15th day of the trial. Prosecutors are seeking 13 years in prison followed by preventive detention.
The 69-year-old defendant, a trained electrician, is charged with rape, dangerous bodily harm and violating intimate privacy by filming. According to the indictment, the case covers 22 offenses between 2016 and 2022 against 14 women from Berlin and Brandenburg, who were between 50 and 60 at the time. He allegedly met them on dating platforms, sometimes posing as a police officer or a German military pilot, spiked alcoholic drinks with sedatives and filmed the assaults.
Many of the women only learned what had happened to them from videos found during the investigation. The man has been in pretrial detention since March and confessed at the start of the trial. Investigations into further cases are ongoing; according to reports, up to 59 women may have been affected in total. He is presumed innocent until a final verdict.