German woman's rape case limited by statute of limitations

A German woman has accused her former partner of drugging and raping her over several years in acts that were allegedly filmed, with most of the alleged crimes unlikely to face trial because of Germany’s statute of limitations laws, AFP reported citing a report by Der Spiegel. The woman, identified as 59-year-old Claudia Wuttke from Hamburg, told the German weekly that police contacted her in June 2025 after discovering videos of the alleged abuse on a laptop. According to the report, investigators found 67 videos allegedly recorded over a 16-year period showing Wuttke being subjected to oral, vaginal and anal assault while allegedly unconscious. In one of the alleged incidents, she was reportedly abused with a baseball bat. Wuttke told Der Spiegel that discovering the videos was “the first earthquake” and said she had “known nothing about” the alleged abuse beforehand. The report drew parallels with the case of Gisele Pelicot in France, who became internationally known after revealing that she had been unknowingly drugged by her former husband and raped by dozens of men over several years. Wuttke said she suffered “a second earthquake” after learning that German authorities had dropped investigations into 65 of the 67 alleged cases because of legal time limits. Under German law, most rape cases are subject to a five-year statute of limitations. As a result, prosecutors are reportedly pursuing only two cases — one dating to 2021 and another involving the alleged use of a “dangerous instrument” in “exceptional circumstances”. “It’s simply unacceptable that the vast majority of what was done to me should go unpunished,” Wuttke told the magazine. “No one knew about these rapes, nor about the existence of these videos; how could anyone have done anything about it?” she said. Initial court hearings in the two remaining cases are expected soon, Der Spiegel reported. The prosecutor’s office and the lawyer representing Wuttke did not immediately respond to AFP queries, while the lawyer for her former partner declined to comment, citing client confidentiality.