For hours, an 18-year-old was said to have been raped in a bush next to a disco in Freiburg in October 2018. From one man to another. Ten refugees and a German have since June before the district court Freiburg for rape responsible. Three defendants have since been released from pre-trial detention. The court no longer sees them as having an urgent suspicion.
The defendants deny the act. Those who say they say they did not rap the young woman, but have consensual intercourse with her. The woman is said to have claimed massive sex, they claim. They also say that the 18-year-old was clearly under the influence of drugs. The woman who appears as a co-plaintiff in the trial claimed to have used ecstasy.
"Two experts are always better than one"
Does ecstasy increase the desire for sex? "That is one of the central questions of the process," says the presiding judge Stefan Bürgelin on Thursday.
Psychiatrist Torsten Passie of Hannover Medical School is considered an expert in the field of the effects of ecstasy on the psyche. He will speak to the court at a later date.
Volker Auwärter, forensic toxicologist at Freiburg University Hospital, will report on this day. He is only supposed to comment on the results of his analysis of the young woman's blood, urine and hair sample. But then Judge Bürgelin says: "Two experts are always better than one." And so Auwärter already provides information on sex and ecstasy.
"Increased cuddling need"
"Ecstasy certainly is not one of the drugs that boosts sexual desire," he says. "Rather, the opposite is true." There are many studies. "Sexuality is not the main issue after ecstasy use, consumers are more likely to find themselves in a postorgasmic state, they have an increased need for cuddles, a need for closeness." Psychiatrist Passie follows his colleague's comments in the courtroom. He nods.
The scientific studies on the subject drew a clear picture, says Auwärter. Ecstasy does not increase sexual desire, and I can not tell if it is different in individual cases, which does not rule out sexual acts, including consensual ones, under ecstasy, but there are other drugs where The people clearly have much more desire for sex. "
"I do not want to dramatize this"
The toxicologist found highly elevated MDMA levels in the co-plaintiff's blood. MDMA is the active ingredient that can be detected after the consumption of Ecstasy in the blood, more specifically in the blood serum. The expert assumes that the tablet, which the woman claims to have taken, was high-dose. Similar tablets confiscated by the police showed an excessive dose of 160 milligrams of MDMA. This fits the value established for the woman.
How Ecstasy works, is among other things the body weight. The woman weighed almost 70 kilograms. Auwärter puts it this way: "At less than 70 kilograms, half of the tablet would have an effect in the feel-good area - 160 milligrams are already a very high dose in a young woman with this body weight." As a result, there may be muscle tension and confusion. "I do not want to dramatize this," says the reviewer: "It is not a lethal dose, but it is definitely a significantly increased dose, where you can expect special side effects."
"Postorgasmic state"
Anyone who, like the victim, is not accustomed to consuming ecstasy, is likely to be overburdened with such a high dose. It comes to "optical shifts", "strange sensations". "Anyone who is not used to the effect thinks of everything at the moment, but certainly not of sex," says Auwärter. After the first overflowing effect, the "postorgasmic state with an increased need for cuddling" sets in.
"That's why the young people take it because they just feel good," says Auwärter. But he also says: "At 160 milligrams, the likelihood of feeling well is rather low, because you're just completely overwhelmed and do not know what's going on around you."
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Combining ecstasy with alcohol, as the young woman did, is, according to Auwärter, "a pretty damaging thing". The appraiser assumes that the co-plaintiff has a blood alcohol value of at least 0.8 per thousand and a maximum of 1.53 per thousand. "The most likely value is 1.1 per thousand." The woman stated that she had drunk a beer mixed drink, peppermint liqueur and vodka.
Alcohol and ecstasy influenced their effects, Auwärter explains. "Alcohol first euphoric and stimulating, then rather dampening.Through the MDMA, the partial sedative effect of the alcohol can be reversed." He also says, "The combination is not really well studied."
Did the drugs have a restraining effect?
Does a shy person lose his timidity when taking Ecstasy? This asks defender Kerstin Oetjen. "MDMA works mainly at the level of conversation," says Auwärter. "It rather breaks the tongue, it's more about things that you would not say otherwise."
Defender Jörg Ritzel reports on a witness who testified in court that after consuming ecstasy she had had "legendary sex" with her boyfriend and done things that would have been unimaginable in her sober condition. "What you are addressing is in the area of disinhibition," says Auwärter: "There is an effect, of course, and there is a growing willingness to live out sexual fantasies and to speak things where one tends to stop."
"Can you say that doing ecstasy makes you feel ashamed the next day?" The defender asks. "Yes, good," says the expert: "Already with the alcohol, many people can sing a song of it."