Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
The fake doctor on trial for 88 counts of attempted murder after convincing women and girls as young as 15 to give themselves potentially lethal shocks from the mains electricity supply while he watched on Skype has been locked up for 11 years.
Identified only as David G. because of local privacy laws, the 31-year-old man from Rimpar, a market town in the district of Wurzburg in the German state of Bavaria, was sentenced in the state capital Munich.
He was accused of instructing women to give themselves electric shocks while he watched on Skype.
The court heard he was so persuasive that sometimes he even managed to convince the victims’ parents to help in his ‘experiments’ and made recordings of their suffering.
He targeted his victims, aged between 15 and 30, via eBay adverts under the name Dr Christian Vogel.
In the ads, David G. said he wanted participants for a study on sexual electric shock fetishes and promised to pay them 3,000 EUR (2,572 GBP) for their involvement.
The court heard that none of the participants were ever paid.
Prosecutors wanted the defendant to receive a 14-year jail term as well as treatment at a psychiatric facility, while defence lawyers argued that a two-year suspended sentence was more appropriate.
After the court found him guilty on 13 counts, they ordered him to be locked up in a secure psychiatric Institute for 11 years because he suffered from a form of autism that was partly to blame for his actions , according to local media.
When the verdict was delivered, victims and the prosecution said they were largely happy with the result.
A video of one of the victims, identified as 27-year-old Natalie P., was shown to the court which shows scenes of her chat with David G.
The video, which has not been released, reportedly shows the woman receiving a shock to her feet while following the fake doctor’s instructions.
Natalie P., from the German capital of Berlin told the court that it happened four years ago and she agreed to the experiments as she was desperate for the money.
She said: “I had little money, and was looking for jobs on eBay ads. The accused contacted me and said he was working as a scientist and was conducting experiments into electric stimulation. He really made a serious impression. I agreed as I needed the money.”
His apparent academic title persuaded the woman it would be safe to undergo. She said: “I also have a background in science.”
The case came to light after a 16-year-old was taken to hospital after falling unconscious. The prosecutor said: “When she regained consciousness, she carried out the experiment again at least three times, passing out every time.
“The girl was taken to hospital where she told doctors about the experiments and they informed the police.”
David G., who is an IT specialist with a reported foot fetish, was arrested in February 2018.
As a lot of the court evidence focused on the man’s sexual fetishes, Judge Thomas Bolt, 52, ordered much of the proceedings to take place behind closed doors.
He ruled that the public had no right to know about his sadism and alleged foot fetish, saying: “It is a characteristic of this case that involves the satisfaction of sexual urges. Therefore the evidence will revolve around the sex life and intimate personal desires of the defendant.
“Accordingly, the right to protect this information outweighs the desire to keep the public informed about the details.”
Police were able to track down a large number of his victims as he kept over 100 Skype videos of the experiments on his PC. Some reportedly took part in the ‘experiment’ multiple times.
According to some reports, not all of his victims have been tracked down.
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