As of: February 29, 2024, 5:28 p.m
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The main entrance to the criminal justice building.
© Christian Charisius/dpa
A masseur touches three women's intimate areas in a Hamburg wellness facility and rapes two of them.
The regional court has now made a judgment.
Hamburg - They hoped for relaxation and experienced something terrible: On Thursday, the Hamburg regional court sentenced a masseur to a total prison sentence of three years for raping two customers and a sexual assault in a Hamburg spa.
The judges saw it as proven that the 37-year-old raped two women while massaging them with his finger between October 2020 and June 2023.
Another woman had unwanted touching in her intimate area during the wellness treatment.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The defense, which had argued for acquittal, announced that it would probably appeal.
The prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of three years and three months.
The defendant received the reasons for the verdict without any outward emotion.
According to the information, he worked as a masseur for around 14 years.
During this time, in different places in Europe, he often experienced that his customers wanted such touches, the man, who had no criminal record, said in his statement, according to the chamber.
One of the customers who reported him in Hamburg reminded him of a woman he once met at a swingers party.
“I never intended to harm anyone,” the man had said in his so-called last word.
“I assumed that everything was intentional the way I did it.”
The chamber saw it differently.
The statements of the three witnesses were very authentic, said presiding judge Gunnar Helmers.
The defendant is a repeat offender.
“The three cases made a pattern clear.” At first the sexual touching seemed like an accident.
Then the man took advantage of an element of surprise and continued walking.
The man shook the basic trust of those affected.
In the first case, the woman was visiting Hamburg during her honeymoon.
She visited the wellness facility with her husband, booked a full-body massage - and got an appointment with the defendant.
The presiding judge emphasized that it was very unlikely that the woman had wanted such sexual touches from the masseur during her honeymoon.
After the customer filed a report in 2020, the defendant's wife wrote to the victim online.
The woman should reconsider her statements because she would be harming the masseur.
Originally charged were two other cases in which the man was said to have been sexually assaulted during the wellness treatment.
But according to the court, the two proceedings were discontinued in mid-February.
dpa