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CRIME

‘Phone box kidnapper’ sent to mental hospital

A man who turned his Hamburg flat into a prison, complete with a sound-proofed telephone box and more than a tonne of food, and then kidnapped a woman to keep her there and have babies with, has been sent to a mental institution.

Published: 5 April 2012 09:23 CEST
'Phone box kidnapper' sent to mental hospital
Photo: DPA

The 30-year-old man suffered from a severe psychiatric disorder and could not be held responsible for his actions, the Hamburg district court ruled on Wednesday. He was not convicted of a crime, but will be admitted to a psychiatric institution.

The man, identified only as Thomas F. not only led an isolated life, he never had a relationship with a woman – and gradually believed himself to be abnormal and became obsessed with the desire to have a family.

He tried to make contact with young women several times, and even stalked the actress Eva Habermann, camping in her garden in 2003 and writing her letters.

His problems came to a head last August when he kidnapped an Israeli woman at gunpoint and locked her in his flat. He told the 26-year-old he was in love with her and would not let her return to Israel.

He had barricaded the windows of his flat with pieces of wood and rolls of barbed wire. Inside he had hoarded around 1.6 tonnes of food and toiletries.

He had fertility drugs and medical equipment, which it is thought he wanted to use in his bid to get the woman pregnant.

She managed to escape by jumping out of the window.

He told the court he would not appeal the sentence and apologised to his victims.

DAPD/The Local/hc

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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