German man found guilty of drugging, raping and filming his wife for years
By Niamh Kennedy, Saskya Vandoorne, Caroline Baum, CNN
(CNN) — A German man has been found guilty of drugging and raping his unconscious wife for years and sharing video of his crimes on the internet, in a case that has drawn comparisons to the trial of Dominique Pelicot in France.
Fernando P., a 61-year-old school janitor, was found guilty of abusing his wife inside the couple’s home, filming it and then sharing it online without the victim’s knowledge.
He was sentenced Friday to 8 years and 6 months in prison following a trial at a court in Aachen, western Germany. An appeal may be filed against the judgment within one week, the court said.
The court said the man violated “the most intimate sphere of private life and of personal rights through image recordings in 34 cases, including in four cases in concurrence with aggravated rape and dangerous bodily harm.” He was also convicted on charges of aggravated sexual coercion and sexual assault.
“The defendant repeatedly secretly sedated and sexually abused his wife in the marital home,” the court said in a statement. “He also filmed the acts and made the recordings available to other users in group chats and on internet platforms.”
Accused of crimes spanning nearly 15 years, the court found him guilty of offences between 2018 and 2024.
He was acquitted on some other charges, details of which have not been released by the court.
The verdict comes exactly a year after Frenchman Pelicot – who solicited dozens of strangers from a chatroom for a near 10-year period to rape and abuse his then-wife Gisèle – was found guilty of aggravated rape. Forty-nine other men were all found guilty of rape or sexual assault in that case.
The Pelicot case shocked the world and sparked a cultural reckoning on gender-based violence and misogyny in France.
This is a breaking story and has been updated.
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