Proceedings in Cologne Siegaue rapist to appear in court again
Cologne · Eric X, known as the Siegaue rapist, is to appear in court again. From 23 September, he must answer several charges, including arson.
Eric X will have to stand trial again from 23 September. Jan Orth, head judge at the Cologne Regional Court, told the GA that he would be tried for aggravated arson as well as threatening and insulting prison officers.
In the middle of last year, the defendant is alleged to have started a fire on the floor of his cell in the correctional facility in Cologne-Ossendorf and to have threatened and insulted prison officers. Eric X suffered serious injuries as a result of the fire.
Eric X became known throughout Germany as the Siegaue rapist. At the beginning of April 2017, the asylum seeker from Ghana attacked a young couple camping in the Siegaue with a pruning saw and raped the 23-year-old woman in front of her boyfriend. In October 2018, Eric X was sentenced to ten years in prison by the Bonn Regional Court for aggravated rape and aggravated extortion. The case had to be reopened at the time because although the Federal Supreme Court confirmed the guilty verdict in the first conviction to eleven and a half years in prison, it overruled the sentence.
The Federal Court rejected another appeal by defence lawyer Martin Mörsdorf in March this year. The verdict has since become final.
(Original text: Laszlo Scheuch. Translation: kc)
