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A 19-year-old Lebanese man has been sentenced to four years and ten months in youth custody for the aggravated rape of two teenagers in a high-rise stairwell in Hamburg’s Wilhelmsburg district.
The Hamburg Regional Court found him guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl on consecutive days in January, as well as of threats and dangerous bodily harm.
According to the indictment, the man arranged meetings with his two victims over Snapchat. On Jan. 17, he lured the 18-year-old to the ninth floor of a stairwell, pushed her against a wall, and threatened to kill her if she resisted. She was forced to perform sexual acts before escaping to a lower floor, where she fell from a balcony in panic and suffered severe injuries, requiring weeks in intensive care.
The next day, he met a 14-year-old girl at the same building. He threatened her with an unloaded gas pistol, demanded her phone, and forced sexual acts, beating and strangling her before she managed to flee and alert police.
The trial was held behind closed doors due to the age of one of the victims.
The presiding judge said the evidence was clear and described the man’s attitude as deeply disturbing. As reported by Welt, messages from prison showed that the defendant “didn’t care at all” about his victims, while the court’s psychological report concluded that he was incapable of developing compassion or empathy.
“It is unbelievable in terms of cynicism that you committed such a crime again just 12 hours after the first,” the judge told him.
The court praised the defendant for his confession, which spared the victims a prolonged confrontation in court. Even so, both girls cried heavily during questioning and are expected to suffer long-lasting psychological trauma.
The court heard that the defendant had grown up in difficult circumstances, sharing a two-room flat with six family members. While this, the judge noted, explained some of his immaturity, it could not excuse the crimes.
