German prosecutors have charged a 68-year-old man suspected of drugging and raping 14 women he met on online dating platforms and filming his attacks.
The public prosecutor’s office in Berlin said he had been charged with 22 counts of aggravated rape involving 14 women, but that he was suspected of raping a total of 58 women.
The inquiry began in March 2025 when the suspect appeared on chat logs with another man they were already investigating after a tip-off, officials said.
The other man has since died, but officials said the 68-year-old’s home was searched last year. Months later, a forensic specialist examining devices seized in the raid found videos that revealed sexual offences.
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The suspect, who has been in pre-trial detention since March 2026, has made no comment on the allegations against him, prosecutors say, adding that it will now be up to the Berlin courts to decide whether to proceed to trial.
The suspect is alleged to have met the women online before plying them with a mixture of sedatives and alcohol and then raping them. None of the women who have so far been contacted had any recollection of being raped and only found out when they were shown videos retrieved by investigators.
Thirty of the 58 women in the videos have been identified, say officials, while the identities of another 10 are yet to be established.
The case comes less than a week after a 32-year-old doctor of Chinese origin was given five years in jail for aggravated rape.
Berlin regional court found he was part of a chat group that exchanged information on raping women who had been sedated. The 32-year-old was found to have given advice repeatedly to other members of the group.
The judge said “sexual offences are no longer committed silently and in secret, but are publicly shared on the internet and applauded”.
In the latest case, prosecutors say they had to drop charges against the 68-year-old man involving 36 alleged instances of rape against a single woman between 2010 and 2014 because of a five-year statute of limitations.
The 22 counts of aggravated rape he does face involve the use of force and are subject to a 20-year statute of limitations.
While many instances of rape currently come under a five-year limit of prosecution in Germany, Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said last month she believed that should be extended to 20 years.
Hubig has also proposed changes to the law so that anyone convicted of using so-called “date-rape drugs” to commit rape or robbery should face a minimum prison term of five years.
Two years ago Germany’s highest court ruled that date-rape drugs added to a drink were not classed as “dangerous items” in the context of sexual assault. The justice minister said that meant that in practice the minimum sentence would be three years.
Now, under its draft amendment, the government says in future “all dangerous items and substances used while a sexual offence or robbery is committed” will be listed alongside any other weapon or dangerous implement.
