The prosecution accuses him of grabbing a 25-year-old woman on the Kennedy Bridge at around 2am on 11 June, dragging her down the stairs to the Rhine and pushing her into a bush and trying to rape her. It was only when police arrived, alerted by a witness because of the cries for help, that he apparently let her go and jumped in the Rhine, before being fished out. Now he wants to make a confession.

His defence lawyer, Carl Horst Schroeder, reads out a statement immediately after the start of the trial in which the 27-year-old explains: “I deeply regret that the incident occurred and that the woman had to suffer as a result. And I want to expressly apologise to her.” But the defendant then immediately undoes what has been said with the following declaration.

For he continues: He had had a lot to drink and had probably misunderstood the woman’s behaviour. “I assumed she was consenting because she did not fight back.” He also did not use violence, he did not kick her, did not hit her, did not choke her, did not try to undress her and did not press his arm onto her throat.

“That is not a confession showing remorse,” the chairman of the chamber Marc Eumann remonstrates and asks: “What led you to believe the woman was consenting? Did you not hear her screams?” The defendant dithers, explains that he does not know anymore, it could be that he pulled her a bit, but then she went to the ground “voluntarily and pliantly,” as the translator translates the words of the defendant, who fled from Syria to Turkey in 2012 and then came to Germany via the Balkans.

Before his arrest, he lived in Meckenheim and had been working recently in Duisdorf. The judge again reproaches him: “A woman says no, cries for help, and you want to tell me that she has changed her mind?” Then the judge does, as he calls it, some “straight talking” with the defendant: “I don’t know how it is in Syria, But here, when a woman says no and calls for help, then it’s clear that she is not consenting.”

And Judge Eumann gives the defendant something else to think about: “Here in Germany, a woman can walk the streets alone at night exactly like a man, without this being construed as some sort of signal.” But the contradictions do not end: sometimes the defendant admits something, then he takes it back again, although the judge explains to him that without a proper confession, which spares the victim unpleasant questioning before the court, he cannot expect a reduced sentence in case of a conviction.

After a short break to consult with his defence, the lawyer explains: “He is finding it very difficult, which could also be for cultural reasons. But he admits that after her first cries for help, he knew she did not consent and still continued.” He also admitted to using “light force” and to holding her mouth and pushing her. But when questioned by the court, the defendant again retracts and even explains that he did not flee from the police because he had done something wrong, but because of bad experiences. He also did not jump into the Rhine, but slipped and fell in. His victim will be heard next week.

(Original text: Lisa Inhoffen. Translated by Kate Carey)