Five Years in Prison for Berlin Doctor for Aiding Rapes of Sedated Women

According to the court's findings, the chat group was a platform for exchanging information about serious sexual offenses, in particular the rape of previously sedated women. One of the members had attacked and raped women serially; the defendant had recommended a specific sedative to this man. This man was later indicted in Frankfurt am Main, with chat messages proving that he also used the recommended substance.

Statements of the Presiding Judge

Bartl said in the pronouncement of judgment: „Solche Fälle sind frauenverachtend, weil Frauen zu reinen Objekten degradiert werden". Sexual offenses would „nicht mehr still und heimlich begangen, sondern öffentlich im Internet verbreitet und beklatscht". The panel had „keine Zweifel, dass das eine Beihilfe ist". The defendant's fiancée had made use of her right to refuse to testify and made no statement. During a search of the accused, several video files were reportedly seized which, according to the indictment, show the acts from 2020 and 2021.

The 32-year-old, who has since completed his doctorate, has been in pretrial detention since September 2025. He had been identified, according to the court, through data analyses as a participant in the group chat. The initial tip-off about the network came from the Hessian State Criminal Police Office. Investigations against the network, which consists predominantly of Chinese men, are ongoing in several federal states; the network was uncovered in Hesse back in 2024.

Investigations and Scale of the Network

The panel interpreted the events as a mass phenomenon and referred to a comparable case in the United Kingdom. The defense announced that the verdict would be reviewed. If the verdict stands, the sentence would be served after five years.

Bartl emphasized that the acts were an expression of a misogynistic attitude. Regarding the dissemination of the chat messages, he said the internet had lowered the threshold for publicly sharing and celebrating such acts. The panel followed the prosecution's request with its verdict.

The court considered it proven that other men were also involved in the abuse of the fiancée in Beijing, some of whom had been involved in the acts. According to Bartl, this finding was based, among other things, on the analysis of the seized chat histories and video recordings.

Reactions and Further Proceedings

The defense had argued for a milder sentencing range and a suspended sentence, on the grounds that the defendant himself had not committed a sexual offense but had merely acted in an advisory capacity. The panel did not follow this argument. The verdict is not yet final; an appeal can be filed within one week.

With the proceedings in Berlin, part of the investigations against the network, which consists predominantly of Chinese men, comes to an end. Further proceedings, including against one man in Hesse, are ongoing. The court did not disclose how many proceedings are pending in total.

Bartl assessed the case as part of a larger phenomenon and explicitly pointed to parallels with proceedings in the United Kingdom, where sexual offenses coordinated via chat groups had also been tried. The judges spoke in this context of an „Entgrenzung" of sexualized violence through digital platforms.