Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Fugitive sex offender abuses girl, 13

A sex offender and violent criminal who was let out on day release disappeared last Friday and allegedly sexually abused a 13-year old girl. Police have asked the public for help finding the fugitive in central Germany.

Published: 5 June 2014 11:20 CEST
Fugitive sex offender abuses girl, 13
Reinhard Rühs has been on the run since failing to return to open prison on Friday. Photo: Staatsanwaltschaft Osnabrück

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }

Prisoner Reinhard Rühs, 51, is suspected of sexually abusing the 13-year-old girl whilst out on day parole from Lingen prison, prosecutors from Osnabrück in Lower Saxony said in a statement. 

Police have found no trace of the fugitive since he failed to return to the prison on Friday May 30th. Police say they have leads but there has been no concrete trace of the man. “He has been spotted throughout Germany,” a police spokesman said on Thursday.

Rühs, who is serving time for manslaughter, rape and grievous bodily harm, was granted time out of prison as part of therapy treatment. 

According to the Bild newspaper, Rühs has been let out 382 times on day release in the last two years and had been staying in a guesthouse near the prison from May 28th.

The Osnabrück prosecutor believes the 51-year-old could still be in Lingen. “He has no money, no ID, no bike and has spent the last 12 years in prison,” he said.

SEE ALSO: Police appeal over Berlin prison break

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS