By Kevin Hildebrand and Aresou Leisdorff
Saturday morning at 9:24 a.m.: Dark blue Spanish police minibuses stop in front of the courthouse in Palma de Mallorca. Detention demonstration of six Germans!
The young men (21 to 23 years old) are in custody in Mallorca. They are said to have abused a German tourist (18) together on Thursday night. In earlier reports, the woman’s age was given as 20, which the police have since corrected.
What’s supposed to have happened? According to initial media reports, the young woman met one of the accused on Thursday night on the beach. Here it should have come to consensual sex. From there, the man wanted to take the woman to his hotel. But that was the end of the door: Apparently, only registered guests were allowed to enter. So the duo decided to go to the man’s friend’s hotel. According to the police, the 18-year-old went with her voluntarily.
A press release from the authorities said: “When she got there and while she was with the boy she had met, two other men, friends of the boy, first entered the room. Three more followed. Four of them forced the victim to perform sexual acts. In addition, the sexual assault was recorded by one of the detainees using a mobile phone.”
Two of the suspects are handcuffed and pulled their shirts over their faces Photo: Clara Margais/dpa +++ dpa picture radio
Two days after the incidents, more information from the night is coming out to the public.
These findings are new
︎ According to the investigators, several devices were confiscated. Officials found “a recording of the incident” on a smartphone!
︎ What many local and international media did not talk about when reporting: The six men in custody all have a migration background.
︎ According to the police, the young woman initially fled to the bathroom of the hotel room after the attacks. Then one of the men is said to have offered her help and taken her to her friends – to her own hotel. The police were then alerted.
︎ When the police got there, they questioned one of the friends in addition to the victim. This confirmed the descriptions of the 18-year-olds. What’s supposed to have happened? The German stated that she was on vacation
︎ The young woman was taken to a hospital that night after the first interviews.
︎ The police confirmed to BILD that the alleged victim was 18 years old.
Police officers lead the suspects to the appointment with the magistrate Photo: Carlos Herrera/TNN/dpa
The UFAM (Special Unit of the National Police for the Protection of Women and Families) has taken over the investigation.
If the allegations against the suspects are true, they could face a long prison sentence. In Spain, gang rape is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Spanish press speaks of the “German pack”
The case of the alleged gang rape is making waves around the world – but especially in Spain.
The number of violent crimes committed by foreign tourists has skyrocketed across the country in 2023, according to Spanish media reports. It was only earlier this week that a Colombian was said to have raped an Irish woman in the port city of Valencia. Last week an Englishman tried to flee the country; he is accused of raping his girlfriend in a hotel bathroom.
In the most recent case in Mallorca, the media now refer to the suspects as “La manada alemana” (Spanish for: the German pack). The background is the strong resemblance to an act from 2016. At the time, five Spaniards, who called themselves “La Manada” (the pack), raped an 18-year-old during the bull hunt in the city of Pamplona in the north-east of the country. They also captured the act of violence with a cell phone camera.
The case had triggered nationwide protests, as many Spaniards believed that the perpetrators were punished far too lightly in April 2018. A court sentenced the men to nine years in prison for sexual abuse – and not for rape because, according to the court, the victim did not “clearly defend himself”. In addition, they were released on bail.
After numerous waves of protests, the case was reopened by the Supreme Court in the state capital Madrid in 2019. The three judges changed the verdict to rape and sentenced the men to 15 years in prison each. One defendant was given an additional two years in prison for stealing the young woman’s mobile phone after the crime.