Miscarriage of justice around Thomas Ewers

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The miscarriage of justice surrounding Thomas Ewers describes the case of Thomas Ewers (* 1969), who was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for allegedly raping his ex-girlfriend. Shortly after serving the full term, the alleged victim admitted to having fabricated the crime and was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for deprivation of liberty .

case

Thomas Ewers was reported by Claudia K., his former partner, in 2001 and accused of double rape in 1997 and 2001. He also chained her to a radiator for two hours in 1997. The two had previously had a long-term relationship from which a daughter (* 1992) came. Claudia K. was now in a new relationship with David K. and had obtained a ban on contact with the child against Ewers , with whom he did not want to come to terms. Ewers described the allegations before the Dortmund Regional Court as lies. After Claudia K. could not say exactly when the acts should have happened in 1997, Ewers applied for a credibility report . However, the board refused and later stated in the judgment:

"The chamber does not consider the uncertainty about the chronological order to be a concern against the correctness of the statement [...] If the witness had wanted to tell a story she had invented, she would have also determined in terms of time [...] The deliberate [ sic] Behavior of the statement that she does not know exactly speaks for her love of truth. "

In 2002, after four days of trial, Ewers was sentenced in the first instance to seven years and two months in prison for rape and deprivation of liberty. The Federal Court denied his appeal decision the offense of false imprisonment and reduced the fine in 2003 to six years and eight months. Ewers had to serve the entire sentence, as he continued to protest his innocence and was therefore classified as unwilling to cooperate. He was also not allowed to attend his mother's funeral while he was in detention.

Proceedings against Claudia K. and David K.

Shortly after Ewers' release from prison, Claudia K. admitted in a letter after talking to their daughter in 2010 that she had invented the rape allegations. Ewers handed the letter to the public prosecutor's office, which in 2011 brought charges against Claudia K. for indirect deprivation of liberty and against her former partner David K. for inciting. The trial only took place in 2014. Claudia K. testified that Ewers had mistreated her, but not raped her. The rape complaint was an idea of ​​her partner at the time, who also staged the sexual assault after Ewers stalked the two for a long time. You only expected a suspended sentence for Ewers. David K. stated that she had told him that she had actually been raped. Therefore, he advised to report.

Ewers confirmed a strained relationship with David K., who repeatedly hit his daughter. Once there was a fight, for which Ewers received a suspended sentence of several months for assault . The daughter of Ewers and Claudia K. testified that her new partner had regularly taken drugs and beat mother and daughter almost every day. She was the first to question the rape allegation and initiated the investigation through conversations with her mother.

In 2014 Claudia K. was finally sentenced by the Dortmund Regional Court to three years and four months in prison. She also lost the right to a monthly pension of 122 euros, which she had been paid under the Victims Compensation Act . David K. was acquitted of the allegation of aiding and abetting.

Ewers retrial

After Claudia K.'s confession, the Essen Regional Court opened a retrial with regard to Ewers' original conviction for rape. In April 2014, evidence was taken in camera. The chamber started another public main hearing. On June 30, 2014, twelve years after the first judgment, Thomas Ewers was acquitted. In the grounds of the judgment, the presiding judge stated:

“Words are lacking for what you have experienced. We feel for you. "

Thomas Ewers has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since his imprisonment and is unemployed during his imprisonment despite having trained as a cook.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Three years imprisonment for fabricated rape ( Memento from May 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), WDR, May 5, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b How a lie brought Thomas Ewers to prison ( Memento from May 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Stern TV, May 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b Ewers case: 3 years imprisonment for rape lie , Westfälischer Anzeiger, May 5, 2014. Retrieved on May 6, 2014.
  4. ^ Frank Lahme: Wrongly convicted: Thomas Ewers hopes again , Westfälischer Anzeiger, December 23, 2013. Accessed on May 6, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b Was Thomas Ewers innocent in prison for seven years? , Neue Ruhr Zeitung, February 20, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  6. ^ Case of Thomas Ewers: Disastrous family relationships , Westfälischer Anzeiger, April 23, 2014. Retrieved on May 7, 2014.
  7. ↑ Frank Lahme: Now the alleged victim is in the dock , Westfälischer Anzeiger, April 17, 2014. Accessed on May 9, 2014.
  8. ↑ Martin von Braunschweig: Ex-girlfriend: Rape was fictitious , RuhrNachrichten, April 16, 2014. Retrieved on May 6, 2014.
  9. ^ Acquittal for Thomas Ewers is only a matter of time , Westfälischer Anzeiger, April 15, 2014. Retrieved on May 6, 2014.
  10. ↑ Thomas Becker: Ex-girlfriend exonerates convicts: acquittal after seven years in prison , WDR, June 30, 2014. Retrieved on May 3, 2015.