Story By: Kathryn Quinn, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A man accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old schoolgirl before disposing of her body more than a decade ago is to go on trial despite the body never being found.
The trial is scheduled to start on 31st July at a court in the German capital of Berlin, the court confirmed and over 70 witnesses are set to give evidence over 25 days. The suspect will face charges of rape and murder.
According to a joint report by the Berlin police and the public prosecutor, the suspect named only as Ali K., 43, is strongly suspected of having encountered 14-year-old Georgine Krueger on her way home from school and lured her into his cellar in Berlin before killing her.
Pictures Credit: CEN
Georgine disappeared without a trace after she was last seen at a bus stop in the German capital.
Police believe Ali K., a German with Turkish origins and a father-of-three, lured the teenager into his cellar where he raped and beat her before disposing of her body by wrapping it in a carpet and dumping it in a rubbish container in the courtyard of his apartment block.
Despite an intense search, her body was never recovered.
Ali K., who reportedly has a criminal record for sexually assaulting an underage girl, had previously been interviewed as a witness in the case but he was arrested in December 2018, over 12 years after Georgine went missing on 25th September 2006.
In June 2017, undercover detectives had begun further investigations into Ali K, and reports state undercover cop Hakan built up a relationship with the suspect over months.
In March 2018, Ali K. and his wife Melek were introduced to Hakan’s ‘girlfriend’, also an undercover cop named Susann.
Melek reportedly told the undercover cop that her husband often watched young girls from his apartment window.
Another investigator who posed as Hakan’s cousin named as Kara told Ali K. that he wanted to leave his girlfriend, but he could not as he knew something about him.
Ali K. reportedly continued quizzing the undercover cop about the situation and Kara then told him he accidentally killed a person.
It is alleged that Ali K. offered to kill Kara’s girlfriend as he was in need of cash.
In October 2018 Ali K. and Kara were allegedly talking about Kara’s murder conspiracy when Ali K. is said to have first admitted to killing a person, describing how he put a bag over their head, beat them and strangled them.
Over the coming days Ali K. told the cops more details including the name of his victim, admitting to rape and murder and saying he did not have fun as the girl was unconscious but the rape took five minutes, according to reports.
Investigators believe Ali K. knew details that only the murderer himself could know.
Ali K. was later arrested, but he then claimed to investigators that he had made up the story to catch Kara out and that he wanted to tell police about Kara’s plan.
According to local media, Ali K. lived in the neighbourhood where Georgine disappeared, but he had claimed not to have known her at the time.
Local media reported that public prosecutor spokesman Martin Steltner said the suspect and the victim were next door neighbours.
Reports state the suspect had been convicted of sexually assaulting an underage girl in 2012 in Berlin, with the same modus operandi of luring the girl, 15, into his cellar, according to local media.
Local media reported he had been sentenced to one and a half years in prison in that case. The prosecution filed an appeal for a longer sentence which was subsequently prolonged by two months only to be suspended for probation.
The court had explained it was his first prison sentence and that he had favourable prospects for rehabilitation as an employed father.
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