Germany: man convicted for tricking women into electric shocks

A court in Munich found a German man guilty of committing over a dozen offenses of attempted murder on Monday. The man in question, identified only as David G., scammed women and young girls into electrically shocking themselves as he watched online. Further details about his identity are under privacy protection.

The Bavarian capital’s regional court sent David G. to 11 years of jail time. Florian Gliwitzky, the court spokesman, released a statement to The Associated Press that the 31-year-old offender will be treated at a psychiatric clinic.

According to a report by NBC News, David G. contacted his victims — with some as young as 13 — over the course of five years dating back to 2013. Prosecutors say that he posed as a doctor seeking volunteers who will be paid for a medical experiment on pain perception. He then instructed the women and girls to attach a homemade contraption to electricity sources with the other end held to their extremities. He watched and issued the instructions over the internet and none of his victims were paid. They were also filmed against their will.

Out of 88 cases, judges found that 13 of them qualified as attempted murder because the man had told the women to hold cables to their feet or temples. This caused electricity to flow through their hearts or brains.

During the trial, an expert witness claimed that the man had committed the criminal acts for sexual and sadistic gratification — something that the defendant disputed. His legal team requested to give him no more than two years on probation.