Berlin - One of the most horrifying rape and kidnap cases to have been heard in a German court starts in Berlin today, Hannah Cleaver reports. Mr Dieter Henschel (49) is charged with kidnapping, torturing and raping a pregnant woman, subjecting her to a 48-day ordeal of physical and mental abuse.
The 34-year-old woman, a clothes-cutter from Berlin, named only as Sylke R., was kidnapped at knifepoint from a train station and driven to the cellar of Henschel's mother's house. She was only rescued when Henschel was injured in a road accident and taken to hospital. His sister and her husband found Sylke while collecting pyjamas for the injured man from the house.