Sexualized violence | The normal rapist

Frank S. was sentenced to twelve years in prison followed by preventive detention before the Berlin Regional Court because he made women unconscious with sleeping pills and then raped them. Photo: dpa/ Soeren Stache Twelve years' imprisonment followed by preventive detention. This is the verdict against Frank S. that the Berlin district court handed down on Wednesday. From 2016 to 2022, S. sedated a total of 14 women, raped them, some of them several times, filmed the acts and meticulously archived the recordings. The 69-year-old was convicted of 22 cases of serious rape against 14 women, of grievous bodily harm, and in nine cases of violating the most personal sphere of life by taking pictures.

In announcing the verdict, the presiding judge, Jakob Weber, painted the picture of a brutal and experienced perpetrator. He met women aged 50 to 60 at the time of the crime via dating platforms; according to Weber, they all perceived him as a charming and “completely normal” man. During dates in his apartment, he sedated the women with drinks laced with narcotics and raped them in an extremely inhumane manner. The judge calls the approach "perfidious" and "manipulative": He specifically attracted lonely women who were looking for closeness, for example because they had come out of a breakup or had even lost a child. In order to gain their trust and probably also to intimidate them, the electrician posed as a police officer or helicopter pilot for the federal police.

Then he did things to them that the judge described as a "primal human nightmare" - and that put the victims at least in abstract danger of their lives. Weber gives examples from the video sightings that speak of unimaginable cruelty and explains what the medical term "sedation" actually means: a twilight state that limits active consciousness and motor skills and weakens or completely deletes memory, but which does not necessarily lead to complete anesthesia. According to Weber, those affected in the videos whimpered, screamed, vomited or thrashed.

The judge sees no real understanding in S. for the crimes committed. Rather, the defendant normalized his crimes as something completely ordinary. »Their chats were routinely written and the processes were well-rehearsed. "You sat down at the computer immediately after the most serious rapes and filed the recordings in a folder structure like a trophy cabinet," he addresses the convicted S. During the trial, he showed no deep remorse and only reacted with a "sorry" when he met a co-plaintiff.

As a lawyer for a co-plaintiff, Silke Studzinsky particularly welcomes the preventive detention imposed. “This is an important signal,” she says at the end of the trial. The court is currently assuming that S. will continue to pose a danger at the end of his prison term in twelve years. That is why it orders preventive detention: unlike a prison sentence, it serves to protect the general public and is started after imprisonment. It is imposed without notice. Once a year it is checked whether the person still poses a danger. Theoretically, preventive detention can last a lifetime.

"Immediately after the most serious rapes, they sat down at the computer and filed the recordings in a folder structure like a trophy cabinet."

The extent of the violence goes beyond the cases now being heard, as judge Jakob Weber emphasized in his verdict. The now completed proceedings, which started in August and were negotiated over 15 days, involved 14 women affected. But based on the films found on the defendant's hard drives, the investigation actually assumes a total of 58 people were affected. Weber assumes that further cases will be heard in new proceedings after the investigation has been completed.

The verdict will be handed down in the early afternoon. The closing arguments were made by the public prosecutor and defense in the morning, albeit behind closed doors. Much of the process took place behind closed doors. This happened “at the explicit request of the injured parties,” emphasizes Lisa Jani, press spokeswoman for the Berlin criminal courts. The women affected wanted to remain anonymous and protect their privacy. Because the pleadings usually reflect details from the taking of evidence, they should only be kept non-public, says Jani.

As a result, none of the women affected are publicly known - which has probably contributed to the trial receiving less public attention than other shocking cases of sexual violence. With her decision to publicly negotiate the trial of her ex-husband and rapist, Gisèle Pelicot became a prominent face in 2024 and the figurehead of a France-wide feminist protest against patriarchal violence and in particular "soumission chimique", in German "chemical subjugation". In the case against Frank S., there is no woman who can serve as an icon for the feminist struggle. This obviously reduces public interest. But it does not diminish the courage of the women affected, emphasizes judge Jakob Weber. "These women are no less courageous than Gisèle Pelicot, just with a different attitude."

Around 40 people are in front of the court this morning, some of them have followed the trial continuously. Of course, it's a shame that there wasn't a bigger outcry, says a spokeswoman for the Network Against Femicides. »But you shouldn't portray it as something special anyway. It's not an isolated case, so many similar cases are being tried in parallel." The Network Against Feminicides is part of an alliance of feminist groups and activists that accompanied the trial against Frank S. and organized rallies in solidarity with those affected in front of the courthouse. In fact, Frank S. was caught in the first place because he appeared in an investigation into another case in Lower Saxony, which also involved the publication of rape recordings. And chat groups in which perpetrators share such recordings and encourage each other in their violence are regularly made public.

The network against femicides has set up a pavilion in front of the courthouse in Moabit together with the group “No Show for Perpetrators” and the grandmas on the right, below which there is a table with information material and a large pot of coffee. Before the verdict is announced, Angelika from the grandmothers against the right gives a short speech: “We are all women and many of the grandmothers have experienced violence themselves, whether in the post-war period or in marriage. “It is therefore our duty to take to the streets whenever there is violence against women.” After the verdict was announced, around 200 people gathered for a rally. They make visible what cannot remain in the courtroom. And they make it clear that a lot still has to happen before the shame and, above all, the fear really changes sides.

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