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Serial rapist caught after eight-year hunt

Police finally have caught a man responsible for three rapes in northern Bavaria in 2008 after his DNA turned up at a break-in a different part of the country.

Published: 28 December 2015 15:53 CET

Serial rapist caught after eight-year hunt

File photo: DPA

The 51-year-old man is now sitting in police custody in Cologne almost eight years after the first of his crimes, prosecutors announced on Monday.

On January 26th 2008, the man attacked an 18-year-old from behind while she was out jogging in the late afternoon in Storkstadt, northern Bavaria. The man dragged the woman into a bush where he raped her, before escaping on a bicycle.

The woman was taken to hospital and police embarked upon an intensive search which included using a helicopter. But the criminal managed to get away undetected.

A large scale manhunt ensued, with Bavarian police offering €2,000 for information that led to his arrest. But despite several leads from the general public, investigations came to nothing.

Slightly over two weeks later, the rapist claimed a second victim, this time on the outskirts of Nuremberg. His victim on this occasion was a 42-year-old who was out walking.

Similarities in the description of the person and how the rape had been carried out, suggested to investigators that the same culprit was behind both crimes.

Subsequent studies of DNA traces from the two crimes scenes confirmed this suspicion.

Police raised the reward to €3,000 – but still investigations led nowhere.

On February 10th 2008 the man struck for a third time. This time he attacked a 42-year-old jogger in the neighbouring state of Hesse, but the woman was successfully able to fight him off.

While no decisive breakthrough was made in the early months of 2008, police never closed the case, with DNA comparisons regularly being made with other crime scenes.

The decisive breakthrough came in October, when police in Rhineland-Palatinate compared DNA traces from a break-in in the western state to those in the national data bank and were surprised to find a match with the rape cases of 2008.

Investigators then traced the man to an address in Cologne where he gave himself up without resistance.

What we know so far about the alleged spies accused of plotting attacks in Germany for Russia

The pair, identified only as Dieter S. and Alexander J., were arrested in Bayreuth in the southeastern state of Bavaria on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The main accused, Dieter S., is alleged to have scouted potential targets for attacks, “including facilities of the US armed forces” stationed in Germany.

Russia’s ambassador to Berlin was summoned by the foreign ministry following the arrests.

Germany would not “allow Putin to bring his terror to Germany”, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock subsequently said on X.

But Russian officials rejected the accusations.

“No evidence was presented to prove the detainees’ plans or their possible connection to representatives of Russian structures,” the Russian embassy in Berlin said in a post on X.

Police have searched both men’s homes and places of work.

They are suspected of “having been active for a foreign intelligence service” in what prosecutors described as a “particularly serious case” of espionage.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser likewise called the allegations “a particularly serious case of suspected agent activity for (Vladimir) Putin’s criminal regime”.

“We will continue to thwart such threat plans,” she said, reiterating Germany’s steadfast support for Ukraine.

How US army facilities were targeted

“We can never accept that espionage activities in Germany take place,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

According to prosecutors, Dieter S. had been exchanging information with a person linked to Russian intelligence services since October 2023, discussing possible acts of sabotage.

“The actions were intended, in particular, to undermine the military support provided from Germany to Ukraine against the Russian aggression,” prosecutors said.

The accused allegedly expressed readiness to “commit explosive and arson attacks mainly on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany”.

Dieter S. collected information about potential targets, “including facilities of the US armed forces”.

Fellow accused Alexander J. began assisting him from March 2024, they added.

Dieter S. scouted potential targets by taking photos and videos of military transport and equipment. He then allegedly shared the information with his contact person.

Der Spiegel magazine reported that the military facilities spied on included the US army base in Grafenwoehr in Bavaria.

“Among other things, there is an important military training area there where the US army trains Ukrainian soldiers, for example on Abrams battle tanks,” Der Spiegel wrote.

Dieter S. faces an additional charge of belonging to a “foreign terrorist organisation”. Prosecutors said they suspect he was a fighter in an armed unit of eastern Ukraine’s self-proclaimed pro-Russian “People’s Republic of Donetsk” in 2014-2016.

Espionage showdown

Germany is Ukraine’s second-largest supplier of military aid, and news of the spy arrests came as Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck was on a visit to Kyiv.

“We will continue to provide Ukraine with massive support and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated,” Interior Minister Faeser said.

Germany has been shaken by several cases of alleged spying for Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, amid suggestions that some German officials have been too sympathetic with Moscow in the past.

A former German intelligence officer is on trial in Berlin, accused of handing information to Moscow that showed Germany had access to details of Russian mercenary operations in Ukraine. He denies the charges.

In November 2022, a German man was handed a suspended sentence for passing information to Russian intelligence while serving as a German army reserve officer.

“We know that the Russian power apparatus is also focusing on our country — we must respond to this threat with resistance and determination,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said Thursday.

READ ALSO: Two Germans charged with treason in Russia spying case

Additionally, a man suspected of aiding a plot by Russian intelligence services to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been arrested in Poland, on Thursday, according to Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors.

It said the suspect had stated he was “ready to act on behalf of the military intelligence services of the Russian Federation and established contact with Russian citizens directly involved in the war in Ukraine”.

Russian authorities for their part have levelled treason charges against dozens of people accused of aiding Kyiv and the West since the invasion.

A Russian court sentenced a resident of Siberia’s Omsk region to 12 years in jail earlier this month for trying to pass secrets to the German government in exchange for help moving there.

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