A Romanian truck driver, right, is led into a courtroom in Freiburg, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017. He has confessed to having raped and killed a woman in southwestern Germany at the opening of his trial. The German news agency dpa reported that the 40-year-old said in court that he killed the woman out of “inexplicable aggression,” but that he didn’t have a sexual motive. (Patrick Seeger/dpa via AP)
Republished November 22, 2017 - 8:48 AM
Original Publication Date November 22, 2017 - 1:36 AM
BERLIN - A Romanian truck driver confessed at the opening of his trial Wednesday that he killed a woman who was out jogging in a forest in southwestern Germany.
The 40-year-old, who went on trial at the state court in Freiburg, is accused of killing and raping the 27-year-old German woman in Endingen last November, senior prosecutor Tomas Orschitt said, the German news agency dpa reported.
At the trial, the suspect, whose name wasn't given because of German privacy rules, said he attacked the woman with a bottle and was responsible for her death. He added that he couldn't remember any further details of the attack, the court said in a written statement.
He said he killed the woman out of "inexplicable aggression," but that he didn't have a sexual motive, dpa reported.
Pleas aren't entered in the German trial system and confessions, which can be taken into consideration to mitigate sentences, are common. The suspect faces a possible life in prison, if convicted.
The suspect also told a psychiatric evaluator that he was responsible for killing a young female student from France whose body was found in January 2014 in Kufstein, Austria, the court said without elaborating.
Investigators used highway toll and cellphone data to track him down and arrested the man in June.
Cellphone data on the suspect's phone showed that he was at the Endingen forest during the time of the killing, and authorities found evidence linking him to the crime scene.
Rescue teams searched for the woman for days after she didn't return from her run.
Orschitt told the court the suspect had attacked the woman with a bottle on the trail where she was jogging, then pulled her 70 metres (yards) into a forest, where he raped her.
Afterward, Orschitt said he killed her with several blows to the head with a metal bar. The French woman was also killed with a metal bar, he said.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017