German alleged rape victim battles time limit on abuse cases / Photo: DANIEL REINHARDT - AFP
German alleged rape victim battles time limit on abuse cases
Claudia Wuttke had no idea she may be a rape victim until police showed her a series of screenshots taken from the laptop of her former husband.
The 59-year-old author from the northern German city of Hamburg still recalls the horror she felt on seeing the images last year of a "completely dazed woman in various rape scenarios".
"That woman was me," she told AFP about the images from videos taken over a period of 16 years.
Wuttke, who now believes her ex-husband repeatedly drugged and raped her and filmed the sex crimes, first told her story to Der Spiegel magazine in May.
Compounding her shock, she learned that 65 of the 67 alleged offences could not be investigated because of a five-year statute of limitations -- news that she said felt like "a second earthquake".
Wuttke's ordeal has shocked Germany and drawn parallels with the case of Gisele Pelicot, the Frenchwoman who became a feminist hero during a mass rape trial two years ago.
According to Der Spiegel, German police searching a laptop discovered videos of Wuttke being subjected to vaginal, oral and anal penetration, and in one especially shocking case having a baseball bat inserted anally.
The abuse allegedly took place both during the couple's marriage and after their divorce, when they were still in contact.
However, now Wuttke fears most of the cases may never go to court because of legal reforms introduced in Germany under former chancellor Angela Merkel in 2016.
- 'Lonely and helpless' -
Under the legal changes, which broadly aimed to toughen penalties, some sexual assault offences can expire after five years unless there are certain aggravating criteria.
Because of this, only two of the alleged crimes -- one rape that is thought to have happened in 2021, and the assault with the baseball bat, which constitutes an aggravating condition -- can be investigated under German law.
Wuttke's former partner will face trial over these two alleged incidents in hearings now scheduled to start on June 15.
For more of the cases to be heard, prosecutors would have to prove the aggravating factor of the victim being in a "defenceless" state.
Wuttke argues that, looking at her own case, this condition surely applies: "If this woman was not defenceless, then what does a defenceless woman look like?", she said.
The legal barriers around her case have made her feel "abandoned by our constitutional state" as well as "super lonely" and "helpless", she said.
Wuttke's lawyer Christina Clemm argued that the current legal situation is "unacceptable", and said she hopes that public debate around her client's case will lead to a change in the law.
Facing rising pressure over the case, German authorities confirmed last month that they will reopen the investigation to check whether more of the alleged offences might still be prosecutable.
However, for now the statute of limitations remains in place.
"It is currently impossible to say whether these investigations will lead to prosecutions or whether the case will once again have to be dropped," said Hamburg prosecutor Mia Sperling-Karstens.
Moritz Klay, a lawyer for Wuttke's ex-husband, declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
- 'Unbroken' -
Wuttke said that Pelicot's bravery had helped her cope because "nobody likes to talk about rape and nobody likes to think about it".
The reopening of the German investigation and the messages of support she has received online have also given her hope, she said.
Wuttke said for a long time she thought "everything was somehow my fault and that I was doing something wrong" -- even though she never had "the slightest suspicion" of sexual abuse by her ex-husband.
"And suddenly I learn what has been happening to my body and my soul for so long, and I realise I didn't do anything wrong," she said.
In her spare time, Wuttke enjoys Japanese culture and Argentine tango. She has a small crane tattooed on her chest, which she says is a symbol of "strength" and "liberation".
Her ordeal has inspired her to set up a support group for victims of sexual violence called "Ungebrochen" (Unbroken).
"I want to offer women who have been through this what I didn't have," she said.
W.Janssens--RTC
