Users from multiple countries have been sharing tips on how to sedate and sexually assault women, German investigation finds
Germany
Thousands of men are participating in chat groups in which they share suggestions on how to rape and sexually assault women, a German investigation has revealed.
The groups, on the instant messaging service Telegram, have as many as 70,000 members who mostly communicate with one another in English and appear to come from a variety of countries.
Users claimed to have assaulted women in their household, including wives, partners, sisters and mothers, and also shared instructions with others on how to do the same.
Some in the chat groups also shared pictures, while others posted live video of the assaults. In one instance, a German man said he would sedate his wife and offered her to other users.
The allegations came as a court in Avignon, France, sentenced Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison for sedating his wife Gisele and offering her online to other men to rape and assault.
He would also rape and assault her himself. The attacks took place over several years, with 50 other men in the case found guilty on Thursday.
The trial has raised questions about the extent to which anonymous internet chat groups facilitate such crimes.
Ms Pelicot has been praised for insisting that the case took place in public in order to raise awareness about the issue.
Telegram, set up by Russian tech billionaire Pavel Durov in 2013, has long been the go-to messaging platform for criminals due to the firm’s refusal to share any data with government agencies.
The investigation, by German broadcaster ARD and its STRG_F investigative team, also found group users had been swapping tips on how to sedate their partners.
This included posting links to online shops where sexual abusers could buy sedatives disguised as hair products.
Telegram insisted that it takes action against such groups. It said in a statement: “Telegram has a zero-tolerance policy towards misuse of its platform. All users caught doing so will be blocked immediately”.
During ARD’s year-long investigation, some groups were deactivated but users were often sent links to new ones.
Investigators in Germany said they have had some success in recent years in convincing Telegram to share information connected to probes into terrorism and child sex abuse content.
Mr Durov was arrested in France in August on charges of failing to address the distribution of illicit content. He has denied the allegations.
Currently under house arrest in Paris, the tech entrepreneur later said his platform would do more to crack down on “problematic content”.
The prevalence of child abuse content on apps such as Telegram has led to calls in Germany for the police to be given more powers to locate the IP addresses of people acting anonymously online.
