Taken hostage
Women tortured and raped: charges against personality coach from Baden-Württemberg
In Mosbach, Baden-Württemberg, a 38-year-old former personality coach is charged with rape and hostage-taking
© Arne Dedert / DPA
A personality coach is said to have intimidated women and lured them to a “boot camp” where he allegedly raped and held them. Now he has to answer in court. His younger brother is also charged.
The public prosecutor’s office in Mosbach, Baden-Württemberg, has charged a 38-year-old former personality coach with allegations of several alleged hostage-takings and numerous particularly serious rapes. According to its own information on Thursday, the authority accuses the accused of targeting young people as part of his counseling services Having approached women, made them insecure and then lured them to their home for a “boot camp” for personality development. There he is said to have broken her resistance through humiliation and violence and “repeatedly” severely sexually abused her.
According to the prosecutor The defendant is said to have held seven women against their will between September 2019 and October 2022 and abused and severely raped them. His last victim managed to make an emergency call. The man’s living quarters in Walldürn were then searched on October 19 last year and he was arrested.
Charge: three hostage-takings, aggravated rape, bodily harm
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the accused is specifically accused of three hostage-takings as well as particularly serious rape in an unspecified “multiple cases” as well as multiple cases of dangerous bodily harm and threats in the indictment, which runs to several hundred pages. There are also other cases of physical abuse by the defendant to the detriment of other women, men and a child.
The accused’s younger brother was also charged as a suspected accomplice. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the 24-year-old is accused of, among other things, rape and grievous bodily harm as well as aiding and abetting hostage-taking and particularly serious rape. The charges against the two men were brought to the regional court in Mosbach. It will examine the indictments and decide whether to open a trial.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the 38-year-old main suspect was initially taken to a psychiatric facility after his arrest, but was later transferred to custody. His brother was initially also in custody, but this was later suspended.