“Yes, I am sick, but I can live with my illness,” claims Omar M. The 29-year-old suffers from schizophrenia. He is reportedly taking medication for the disease. He feels “normal,” says M. He also felt “normal” on December 17, 2022, even though he had consumed drugs the day before, including crack. At around 7:30 p.m. on December 17th, M. is said to have first approached a woman on Sonnenstrasse who wanted to shop in a drugstore, shortly afterwards harassed her and raped her in doorways in Ludwigsvorstadt and Nussbaumpark.
Omar M. has had to answer for the alleged crimes before the Munich I regional court since Monday. The 29-year-old doesn’t notice that he suffers from schizophrenia. He appears clear and oriented and answers the court’s questions directly. Ninety percent of what “the woman,” by whom he means the alleged victim, told the police “is not true,” explains Omar M. and describes to the court in detail what happened from his perspective. It is the exact opposite of what the public prosecutor’s office is accusing M. of, namely rape combined with coercion.
Everything happened “voluntarily,” Omar M. assures during his interrogation. He didn’t speak to the woman he is said to have raped, but rather she spoke to him. She told him that he knew her. And in the midst of the hustle and bustle on Sonnenstrasse, the 30-year-old immediately answered “yes” when he asked if she wanted to have sex with him, claims Omar M. and describes the details of this unusual encounter.
According to the public prosecutor’s investigation, the two are said to have gotten closer to each other in a house entrance on Sonnenstrasse. However, not voluntarily, as M. presents it. After he allegedly harassed the 30-year-old for the first time, he is said to have continued with her. Another sexual assault is said to have occurred in a house entrance on Mathildenstrasse. M. is said to have only let go of the woman when passers-by arrived. Two more serious sexual assaults are said to have occurred in another building entrance on Pettenkoferstrasse and at the fountain with the monument to the ophthalmologist Friedrich Bezold in Nussbaumpark.
The public prosecutor sees the defendant as a danger to the public
Afterwards, Omar M said, he went with the woman to a restaurant on Sendlinger-Tor-Platz. She cried. He then continued alone and played a slot machine in a nearby arcade. At some point the police appeared, accused him of rape and took him away. “That’s it,” says Omar M. at the end of his statement and speculates: “She didn’t get what she wanted and then made a statement.”
The public prosecutor’s office assumes that the 29-year-old’s “ability to control” was significantly reduced due to his illness at the time of the alleged sexual assault. As long as Omar M. is not treated, he represents a “danger to the general public.” Therefore, the public prosecutor’s office demands, the 29-year-old must be placed in a closed psychiatric clinic for an indefinite period of time. The process continues. A verdict is expected at the end of January.