The court considered the accusation of attempted rape and murder proven. What exactly happened in the homeless shelter on 1 December of last year remained unclear: the chamber was convinced, in any case however, that one of two possible scenarios had taken place; a murder had been committed. Either the accused had raped the victim and then murdered her, or he had murdered Elma C. after attempting to rape her and then she committed suicide.

Elma C. had met the German Kenyan the day before in Bonn. In the night she accompanied him to his accommodation after she had missed the last train home. The 18-year-old was himself still a minor at the time of the crime, a fact which, however, had only become known on the first day of the trial: he was not 19, but only 17 years old at the time of the crime.

His grandmother, who came from Kenya and whom he had previously considered to be his mother, as she had allegedly pretended to her two childrenduringher marriage to a German. In reality, however, it was her daughter and her daughter’s son who is the man now on trial.

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