German police have finally released a photo of a suspected rapist, after waiting for almost a year despite the seriousness of the crime.
The victim had photographed the man with her cell phone, shortly before he raped her in Darmstadt, Hesse. Although a timely release of the photo could have contributed to this man's timely arrest, the police held off on releasing the photo and are only now, 11 months later, asking the public for help. The photos were only released, only after a judge approved releasing this week.
The crime occurred on November 24, 2022 at 3:30 a.m. A dark-skinned man approached the 23-year-old victim in the city center. The victim told police she immediately felt threatened and took a photo of the man with her cell phone. Nevertheless, the woman was dragged into Herrngarten and raped by the suspect, who then fled the scene.
The police admit that the man may now look different due to the delay between the photo being taken and the photo being published.
“The description of the suspect refers to the time the photo was taken in 2022, so there may have been differences in his external appearance in the meantime,” the police said.
According to police, the suspect is 30 years old, 1.65 meters tall and has dark skin. At the time of the crime he was wearing a gray jacket, light-colored sweatpants, a black baseball cap and had a long, full beard.
German police have been accused in the past of withholding information and reports of rape, most notably during the mass rape in Cologne and other cities on New Year's Eve 2016, in which over 2,000 German women were raped and sexually abused by migrants from the Middle East and North Africa . Police and politicians later admitted that the true extent of the gang rape was kept under wraps for days because of fears it could spark anti-migrant sentiment.
It was only a month later in August that information about a gang rape by male migrants in the notorious Görlitzer Park in Berlin was published. The victim was raped by several men while her boyfriend was held, causing a scandal in the German press.