Convictions and sentencing
The Hannover Regional Court convicted the man of 33 counts of aggravated rape and seven counts of aggravated sexual coercion, along with dangerous bodily harm and violations of intimate privacy through recordings. He was also convicted of five additional recording-related offenses.
Prosecutors had requested a 13-year sentence, according to stern. Defense lawyer Marcin Raminski described the sentence imposed by the court as very high and said he would examine an appeal on points of law.
The court based its findings primarily on the defendant's extensive confession, checking his account against the videos and other evidence. He had initially remained silent at trial. The judges found him fully criminally responsible but treated his confession and remorse as mitigating factors.
WELT reported that the court also credited his willingness to assist investigations into other perpetrators, although the information he provided brought only limited results in those proceedings.
Drugging, assaults and recordings
According to the indictment, the crimes occurred between November 2021 and March 2026 at the couple's shared apartment in Ronnenberg, near Hannover, and at a hotel, tagesschau and stern reported. Prosecutors said he used sleeping pills and ketamine to drug the woman before performing sexual acts on her and filming them.
The court found that he secretly added a prescription sleeping medication to her drinks, usually tea, at their apartment. WELT reported that he had obtained the prescription from his own family doctor. During the assaults, the woman was close to unconsciousness, the court found; some attacks continued for hours.
He recorded the assaults on his phone and shared some of the footage online. In chat groups, he boasted about what he had done, received encouragement and sometimes acted on other participants' requests, according to the court.
The presiding judge described the footage reviewed by the court as extremely disturbing and said the assaults involved particular degradation. The court also found that the man beat and spat on the woman and secretly recorded her bathing or showering, WELT and tagesschau reported.
How investigators found the case
An investigator with the North Rhine-Westphalia state criminal police office, or LKA, testified that she noticed the defendant's profile during a proactive investigation, according to tagesschau. That work formed part of the international Projekt Medusa investigation into online networks of men who drug and abuse their partners.
The proceedings arose in part from revelations about the Gisèle Pelicot case in France and investigative reporting by the German program STRG_F, tagesschau reported.
Tagesschau also drew a comparison with Pelicot's case. In December 2024, her ex-husband received a 20-year prison sentence in France for drugging and abusing her for nearly a decade and offering her to dozens of strangers for rape. Fifty co-defendants were convicted, mostly of aggravated rape, and received sentences ranging from three to 15 years.
In the Hannover trial, a police officer testified that the defendant might have another victim in Poland, according to tagesschau.
Lasting effects on the woman
The woman learned of the crimes only through the investigation, a court spokesperson told tagesschau. While the abuse was taking place, she experienced fatigue and dizziness without knowing what caused them. The court found that she now suffers from panic attacks and sleep disorders.
After the verdict, her lawyer, Christina Rust, described the continuing burden of the recordings shared online: the woman does not know where copies still exist or when they might resurface.
