Trial in Bonn Sentence for Siegauen rapist reduced to ten years

Bonn · The man who attacked a young woman and her boyfriend camping in the Rheinaue had already been sentenced to a long term in prison. The district court in Bonn now reduced the sentence to ten years after a new hearing.

The man who attacked a young woman and her boyfriend camping in the Rheinaue had already been sentenced to a long term in prison. The district court in Bonn now reduced the sentence to ten years after a new hearing. The accused showed no reaction during the sentencing: Eric X., who got known as the „Siegauen rapist“ was sentenced to ten years in jail for a particularly grave rape and particular gross extortion on Friday, in what was a second attempt by the third special main criminal court in Bonn.

That the 34-year-old had assaulted a young couple who were camping in the Siege and that he had raped the woman, had been confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court (BGH) already, who sent the case back to the district court in Bonn for a retrial. Only the sentence level was supposed to be checked again. The rejected asylum seeker from Ghana had been sentenced to eleven-and-a-half years, and had appealed that decision at the BGH.

Complete lack of empathy

With great sincerity and calmness, chamber president Klaus Reinhoff read out the sentence: The outrage and dismay in regard to the crime has been noticeable in every person present on the first day of the trial. The accused shows obvious signs of antisocial and psychopathic streaks, which did not cause a restriction of his criminal liability in the sense of a pathological disorder. This has been revealed clearly by the expert report of the forensic psychiatrist employed by the court. At exactly that point the BGH had ordered a new detailed assessment of the sentence.

Eric X., according to the judge now, has been cognitively unable to show discernment and to control his behaviour during the time of the crime. His antisocial streaks and complete lack of empathy had enabled him to manage to flee in adverse circumstances and follow his own interests entirely ruthlessly. At the evening of the crime, these streaks had led him to take advantage of the circumstances ruthlessly and to ignore the possibility of negative consequences for himself.

Public opinion „completely irrelevant“

The court had to consider in its decision that the sentence had to be proportionate to similar judicially pronounced cases. Therefore public opinion is completely irrelevant to the determining of the sentence. For both charges the law considers between five and 15 years in prison, whereby the higher sentence is intended for the most serious imaginable crimes.

At the end the judge turned to Eric X.: He had shown no remorse and a lack of any empathy; he had damaged the life of two people permanently. Instead of being self-righteous, he would be better to grapple with the fate of his victims. The defending lawyer Martin Wörsdorf wants to check if he will lodge a new appeal. He said that he doesn’t deem it unlikely that the sentence is „waterproof“.

(Original text: Leif Kubik; Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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