Berlin man (68) charged with 22 rapes involving drugs
A 68-year-old man from Berlin is alleged to have incapacitated at least 22 women with sleeping pills and alcohol, raped them, and filmed the attacks. The public prosecutor's office has filed charges.
Berlin man (68) charged with 22 rapes involving drugs
The Berlin public prosecutor's office has filed charges against a 68-year-old man accused of 22 rapes and serious assault. The alleged victims had no recollection of the attacks and only learned of them through the investigation.
Investigators discovered the pensioner whilst investigating another man in Verden an der Aller in early 2025, who is alleged to have committed similar crimes and has since died. While reviewing online communications from this man, officers found conversations with the Berlin resident. An investigation into him was opened in early March 2025.
During an initial search of his flat, police seized computers and data storage devices. It was not until February 2026 that investigators discovered numerous videos on the material depicting sexual assaults that were "probably" committed by the accused. Following a second search of his flat, the man was arrested in March.
The public prosecutor's office is investigating a total of 58 alleged victims. The charges initially cover 22 offences against 14 women. Ten further alleged victims have not yet been identified. Investigations are ongoing in 30 further cases. Evidence is insufficient in three additional cases. According to the charges, the man is alleged to have administered sleeping pills to the women together with alcohol before raping them.
A further 36 suspected cases from 2010 to 2014 involving a different woman have been dropped by the public prosecutor's office as they are time-barred under German law. In this woman's case, investigators could not establish with sufficient certainty that the administration of a substance constitutes violence in the legal sense, which would allow for a 20-year limitation period for rape involving violence. Instead, a five-year limitation period applies.
The question of the limitation period for sexual violence against unconscious victims had already sparked debate in Germany following the case of Claudia Wuttke. After several alleged offences were dropped due to the statute of limitations in November 2025, the justice authorities announced in May that they would reopen investigations against the 59-year-old woman from Hamburg.
Source: Le Temps
Source: Le Temps