Ingolstadt defendant attacks officer after rape sentence

A man sentenced to seven years in prison for rape attacked and injured a police officer at the Ingolstadt Regional Court on Wednesday, BR reported. The defendant had repeatedly said the sentence was “too much” before grabbing a microphone and moving towards the presiding judge.

Two police officers stopped him. During the ensuing struggle, the man from Nigeria strangled one officer and injured him on the head. The judges and lay judges left the courtroom for their safety, while officers restrained the defendant.

Speaking in English, he shouted, among other things, “I did nothing, you are giving me seven years for nothing!” He was then led out of the courtroom.

After the hearing resumed, the presiding judge said that such an incident did not happen every day and that the court had first needed to consult the relevant provision of the Courts Constitution Act to ensure that the proceedings were conducted properly.

Because the defendant remained aggressive and was unwilling to continue participating in the trial, the judge excluded him from the courtroom. The verdict was read out fully in the presence of his defence lawyer.

Evidence in the rape case

The court sentenced the man to seven years for rape, intentional bodily harm and theft. According to the court, he raped a 42-year-old Ukrainian woman at Pfaffenhofen railway station in February.

The presiding judge said the defendant had first approached the woman at Rathausplatz in Ingolstadt and then followed her by bus and train to Pfaffenhofen. Continuous video footage showed the woman trying unsuccessfully to end the uncomfortable situation as amicably as possible, the judge said.

In an isolated part of the station, the defendant allegedly pulled her to the ground, hit and bit her, and penetrated her with his finger. The judge said he had reduced her to a “pure sexual object” for his preferences. The defendant stopped only after the woman pretended to be dead, and then took her handbag.

The court based its ruling on witness testimony, DNA evidence, video recordings and mobile phone chats. It considered the victim’s account entirely credible. The defendant admitted following the woman and stealing her handbag, which the court said was clearly proven, but denied the rape.

The court treated his partial admission as a factor in his favour. The judge said it counted against him that he had been convicted in mid-February and committed an even more serious offence less than two weeks later.

The woman continues to suffer greatly from the incident and returned to Kharkiv, Ukraine, despite having fled the country before the war, the judge said. He acknowledged that even the sentence could not begin to compensate her for what she had endured.

Her lawyer representing her as a co-plaintiff considered the sentence appropriate, although she and the prosecution had sought eight years in prison, according to the Augsburger Allgemeine.

The verdict is not yet final, and the presumption of innocence continues to apply. The court ordered that the defendant remain in custody. He is also likely to face a separate legal case over the alleged attack, resistance to law enforcement officers and bodily harm.