According to the indictment, her ordeal lasted almost 24 hours: the woman was attacked, taken to a hut and raped several times. Now a suspect is coming to court.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - A 36-year-old man has to answer to the Stuttgart Regional Court from today (9:00 a.m.) for taking hostages and raping a woman. The public prosecutor accuses him of stopping the 23-year-old woman on a dirt road near Reichenbach an der Fils (Esslingen district) in the evening of April this year, threatening her with a knife and taking her to a hut. There the accused is said to have held his victim captive for almost 24 hours and raped him several times. Four follow-up dates are planned for the process until the end of October.
As the police and prosecutors had announced at the time, the 23-year-old had not come home from work as usual. Search operations, including police helicopters and squadrons of rescue dogs, were unsuccessful until passers-by pointed out a garden shed where an unknown man was always staying. When the woman saw the emergency services, she was able to climb out of the window and be brought to safety. She came to a hospital.
The 36-year-old, known to the police for narcotics offenses and previously convicted of robbery, has no permanent address, the investigators said. He had stayed in the garden shed for several months with the owner's consent. When he was accessed, he fled according to the information, police officers arrested him shortly afterwards. The man had previously injured himself with a knife and was treated in the hospital. After that he was taken into custody.
According to the public prosecutor's office, an expert should check whether the accused's criminal responsibility could be limited. It was initially unclear whether the report was already part of the hearing on Friday. According to a court spokesman, two police officers have been called as witnesses in the afternoon.
