Berlin electrician charged with 22 rapes after drugging and filming 58 women via dating apps
A 68-year-old electrician in Berlin has been formally charged with 22 counts of aggravated rape and grievous bodily harm after investigators discovered video recordings of unconscious women, with prosecutors identifying 58 potential victims over a six-year period.
The charges
Berlin prosecutors announced Tuesday the indictment of a 68-year-old electrician accused of drugging, raping, and filming dozens of women he met through online dating platforms. The man faces 22 counts of aggravated rape and additional charges of grievous bodily harm and violation of image rights, according to a statement from the Berlin public prosecutor's office.
The accused supposedly sedated the women with sleeping pills and alcohol and then raped them.
Prosecutors allege the suspect administered a mixture of sleeping pills and alcohol to his victims before sexually assaulting them while they were unconscious. None of the women remembered the assaults, learning of the crimes only when investigators informed them of the video evidence.
How the investigation began
The case traces back to a tip from police in Verden an der Aller, a town of roughly 30,000 residents in Lower Saxony near Hamburg. Authorities there had been investigating another man since early 2025 for similar crimes, a suspect who has since died.
While examining that suspect's phone, investigators discovered online conversations with the Berlin electrician. This led prosecutors to open proceedings against him in early March 2025. A first search of his apartment followed that same month, with police seizing computer equipment. However, at that stage, evidence of more serious offenses was lacking.
Discovery of the videos
A forensic expert conducting a subsequent analysis of the seized hard drives made the breakthrough in February 2026, uncovering numerous videos showing sexual assaults allegedly committed by the suspect. The material was described by investigators as disturbing video recordings of sexual crimes.
It was during this later analysis that investigators discovered the extent of the recorded assaults, leading to a second raid and the suspect's arrest.
Police carried out a second search and arrested the man on 3 March 2026. He has remained in pre-trial detention since that date. His apartment in the Berlin-Friedrichsfelde district was the site of the searches.
Victim count and scope
Prosecutors have catalogued a total of 58 presumed victims. The current indictment, however, covers 22 incidents involving 14 women. Ten additional presumed victims have not yet been identified. Investigations remain ongoing for another 30 women, while in three other cases evidence is currently insufficient to bring charges.
An additional 36 suspected rapes dating from the period 2010 to 2014, involving one other woman, have been closed because the statute of limitations has expired under German law. For that particular victim, investigators could not establish with sufficient certainty that the administration of a substance constituted violence in the legal sense necessary to apply the relevant limitation period.
- Alleged rapes begin; 36 later suspicions date from 2010 to 2014 but expire under statute of limitations.
- Alleged crimes in Berlin begin, according to Tagesspiegel reporting, continuing through 2022.
- Police in Verden an der Aller, Lower Saxony, begin investigating a different suspect for similar crimes; that suspect later dies.
- Authorities discover online chats between the deceased suspect and the Berlin electrician; first apartment search conducted, computer equipment seized.
- Forensic expert discovers numerous videos showing sexual assaults on seized hard drives during a subsequent analysis.
- Suspect arrested during a second apartment search and placed in pre-trial detention.
- Berlin public prosecutor formally announces indictment on 22 counts of aggravated rape and grievous bodily harm.
Echoes of other cases
Several media outlets have drawn parallels to the case of Dominique Pelicot in France. His ex-wife Gisele Pelicot became a global figure in the fight against sexual violence after testifying publicly about rapes committed by dozens of men recruited by her former husband, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2024.
The Berlin public prosecutor's office has requested the conviction of the accused and his continued detention, stating that as of now there are no grounds to conclude he bears diminished or absent criminal responsibility. The case now rests with the Berlin Regional Court, which will decide whether to admit the indictment and set a trial date.
