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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.

Nine face trial in Germany for alleged far-right coup plot

Nine suspected participants in the coup plot will take the stand in the first set of proceedings to open in the sprawling court case, split among three courts in three cities.

The suspects are accused of having participated in the “military arm” of the organisation led by the minor aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss.

The alleged plot is the most high-profile recent case of far-right violence, which officials say has grown to become the biggest extremist threat in Germany.

The organisation led by Reuss was an eclectic mix of characters and included, among others, a former special forces soldier, a former far-right MP, an astrologer, and a well-known chef.

Reuss, along with other suspected senior members of the group, will face trial in the second of the three cases, in Frankfurt in late May.

The group aimed to install him as head of state after its planned takeover.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The alleged plotters espoused a mix of “conspiracy myths” drawn from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbûrger (Citizens of the Reich) scene, according to prosecutors.

The Reichsbürger movement includes right-wing extremists and gun enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German republic.

Its followers generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy, and several groups have declared their own states.

Such Reichsbürger groups were driven by “hatred of our democracy”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Sunday.

“We will continue our tough approach until we have fully exposed and dismantled militant ‘Reichsbürger’ structures,” she added.

READ ALSO: Who was involved in the alleged plot to overthrow German democracy?

‘Treasonous undertaking’

According to investigators, Reuss’s group shared a belief that Germany was run by members of a “deep state” and that the country could be liberated with the help of a secret international alliance.

The nine men to stand trial in Stuttgart are accused by prosecutors of preparing a “treasonous undertaking” as part of the Reichsbürger plot.

As part of the group, they are alleged to have aimed to “forcibly eliminate the existing state order” and replace it with their own institutions.

The members of the military arm were tasked with establishing, supplying and recruiting new members for “territorial defence companies”, according to prosecutors.

Among the accused are a special forces soldier, identified only as Andreas M. in line with privacy laws, who is said to have used his access to scout out army barracks.

Others were allegedly responsible for the group’s IT systems or were tasked with liaising with the fictitious underground “alliance”, which they thought would rally to the plotters’ aid when the coup was launched.

The nine include Alexander Q., who is accused by federal prosecutors of acting as the group’s propagandist, spreading conspiracy theories via the Telegram messaging app.

Two of the defendants, Markus L. and Ralf S., are accused of weapons offences in addition to the charge of treason.

Markus L. is also accused of attempted murder for allegedly turning an assault rifle on police and injuring two officers during a raid at his address in March 2023.

Police swooped in to arrest most of the group in raids across Germany in December 2022 and the charges were brought at the end of last year.

Three-part trial

Proceedings in Stuttgart are set to continue until early 2025.

In all, 26 people are accused in the huge case against the extremist network, with trials also set to open in Munich and Frankfurt.

Reuss will stand trial in Frankfurt from May 21st, alongside another ringleader, an ex-army officer identified as Ruediger v.P., and a former MP for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann.

The Reichsbürger group had allegedly organised a “council” to take charge after their planned putsch, with officials warning preparations were at an advanced stage.

The alleged plotters had resources amounting to 500,000 euros ($536,000) and a “massive arsenal of weapons”, according to federal prosecutors.

Long dismissed as malcontents and oddballs, believers in Reichsbuerger-type conspiracies have become increasingly radicalised in recent years and are seen as a growing security threat.

Earlier this month, police charged a new suspect in relation to another coup plot.

The plotters, frustrated with pandemic-era restrictions, planned to kidnap the German health minister, according to investigators.

Five other suspected co-conspirators in that plot went on trial in Koblenz last May.

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