A paramedic who abused almost two dozen women after plying them with sedatives has been sentenced to ten years in prison. The Nuremberg Regional Court decided on Monday that the 41-year-old was guilty of committing sexual crimes including rape against 23 women between 2009 and 2016.
Seven of the cases involved serious rape and ten others involved serious sexual abuse of people who were incapable of resistance, as the presiding judge said in his statement of reasons for the decision, according to a spokesman for the judiciary.
The 41-year-old had pretended to be an employee of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and told the women he was examining them for alleged cancer studies. At meetings, he used sedatives to make his victims lose consciousness and then raped them or otherwise sexually assaulted them.
The presiding judge said that the man's deeds made him "speechless and stunned." The 41-year-old had "degraded the women to the level of sex dolls".
The defendant admitted his guilt at the beginning of the trial.
"I am ashamed to have abused women's confidence in me," he said.
The judge said that the 41-year-old had invested considerable time in the preparation of his actions, demonstrating an extreme criminal energy. Many of his victims are still traumatized. The judge did add though that he appreciated the man's comprehensive confession.
The man had met some of the women while they did internships at the hospitals he worked at. He met others in his spare time.
The 41-year-old's years of activity did not come to light until two women began to doubt the seriousness of the alleged drug trial. After they had searched in vain for the university institute on the internet and the university medical department said it knew nothing about such a study, they turned to the police.