crime
New trial of rapist with wolf mask
A wolf mask can be seen on a screen in the Munich police headquarters. photo
© Wera Engelhardt/dpa
In 2021, a man was convicted of raping an eleven-year-old girl. Why his process must now be reopened.
The so-called wolf mask process is being renegotiated before the Munich I Regional Court. The man, who was convicted in 2021 for raping an 11-year-old girl, will be on trial there again from March 14. This was announced by his lawyer Adam Ahmed of the German Press Agency. The court confirmed the date.
According to a court spokesman, a total of ten hearings are scheduled until April 19.
It happened in broad daylight
The regional court had sentenced the then 45-year-old to twelve years in prison with subsequent preventive detention in 2021. The man had previously admitted in the process that he had dragged the girl into a bush in June 2019 and severely abused it there – in broad daylight in the middle of Munich. He wore a wolf mask for camouflage.
However, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe had “serious legal concerns” about the sentencing, therefore partially granted the appeal against the verdict and referred the case back to the regional court.
Already noticed as a teenager for sexual offenses
When assessing the prison sentence, the youth protection chamber did not take into account the preventive detention ordered at the same time, the BGH criticized. The Senate could not rule out that the chamber would have reached a lower prison sentence if the assessment was free of legal errors. This led to the cancellation of the sentence and thus also of the preventive detention. However, the guilty verdict as such remained.
The nightmarish attack on a little girl had also triggered a discussion about the rehabilitation of sex offenders. Because the convict had several previous convictions for the sexual abuse of children and had already attracted attention as a teenager with sexual offenses. At the time of the crime, he was in a relaxation phase of the prison regime and was allowed to drive unaccompanied from his supervised community to work. On this way he fell upon the child.