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CRIME

Gynaecologist ‘took 35,000 pics of patients’

A German gynaecologist has appeared in court accused of taking more than 35,000 photos of his patients on a secret camera - while he was examining them. He faces ten charges of sexual abuse and more than 1,400 counts of gross invasion of privacy.

Gynaecologist 'took 35,000 pics of patients'
The accused in court. Photo: DPA

“I am ashamed,” the 58-year-old doctor told the court in Frankenthal near Mannheim in Rhineland-Palatinate on Thursday. He spoke of a dark side to him, being unable to explain his actions over three years in any other way.

The extraordinary case – the first of such a kind in Germany – came to light only in 2011 after the doctor’s medical assistants became suspicious, noticing that he always opened and closed a drawer before a patient came into his examination room.

The drawer was not normally used for anything – and was usually empty when the assistants looked inside – until one day one of them found a digital camera inside.

“That really shocked us,” one of the assistants told the court. She found a photo on the camera of a patient in examination position on the gynaecological chair. This prompted her to go to the police.

Officers found 36,146 such photos, as well as 62 videos, the Welt newspaper reported. He is being charged with more than 1,400 counts of gross invasion of privacy and ten of sexual abuse – accused of conducting vaginal examinations for his own sexual arousal rather than for medical reasons.

He told the court that he had not intended to offend, injure or damage anyone. The case continues.

DPA/The Local/hc

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TERRORISM

Germany to tighten law on deporting foreigners who glorify terror acts

The German government on Wednesday agreed measures making it easier to deport foreigners who glorify acts of terror after a surge in online hate posts during the Gaza war.

Germany to tighten law on deporting foreigners who glorify terror acts

Under the new rules, foreigners could face deportation for social media comments that glorify or condone a single terrorist act, according to a draft law agreed by the cabinet.

At the moment, it is necessary to express support for several acts.

After Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the Gaza war, there was a surge in hate posts on social media in Germany with officials saying Islamists in particular were responsible.

The fatal stabbing last month of a police officer by an Afghan asylum seeker in Mannheim also triggered a surge of such posts, fuelling the debate on deportations.

“It is very clear to us that Islamist agitators who are mentally living in the Stone Age have no place in our country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Funke media group, ahead of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.

“Anyone who does not have a German passport and glorifies terrorist acts here must — wherever possible — be expelled”.

Glorifying acts of terror online fuels a climate of violence that can encourage extremists and violent criminals, according to the draft law, which still needs to be passed by parliament.

Convictions have already been made over some social media posts. An imam in Munich was this month fined 4,500 euros ($4,800) for posting on Facebook that “everyone has their own way of celebrating the month of October”, on the day of the Hamas attack.

In parliament following the Mannheim attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also called for those who celebrate acts of terror to face deportation.

Glorifying terrorist offences amounted to a “slap in the face for the victims, their families and our democratic order”, he said.

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