The man from Unterschleißheim who wanted to protect his daughter after she faced sexual harassment at the Hackerbrücke, near Munich, Germany, is now in trouble with the law.
On Tuesday, at the S-Bahn station Hackerbrücke, a drunken African from Eritrea grabbed the private parts of a 21-year-old woman from Giesing. When her father noticed the groping attack, he punched the 21-year-old in the face.
The police are now investigating the 28-year-old African for sexual harassment and the 42-year-old for assault.
For many readers of Merkur.de and tz.de the charge against the father is a disgrace. In the comment section under the German language article and on Facebook, they expressed their anger and said that the father had acted in self-defense, and no one could expect him to stand idly by.
Many do not understand why the 42-year-old should now be punished for wanting to help his daughter.
The “refugee” had 1.28 per thousand ml alcohol in his blood, according to the Federal Police. This will certainly have an impact on the sexual harassment complaint against him as he will plead for leniency. The father did not take an alcohol test.
Federal Police in Munich issued a response through their spokeswoman Petra Wiedmann: “It is up to the judiciary to assess the case. There is a suspicion that there were two crimes, one sexual harassment and the other a physical injury. The police are required by law to charge both.”
Wiedmann said the security staff at the station “should act in a preventative way if something suspicious occurs” and passengers “should then rather approach the officials and ask for help”.
The incident occurred on Sunday, September 30, around midnight where an employee of Deutsche Bahn Sicherheit observed the incident and alerted the police.
For the current the Oktober festival several cases of sexual harassment have already been registered. On the same day at the S-Bahn station Hackerbrücke, a man was arrested because he had photographed women under their skirts. In another case, a woman was injured with a beer jug, because she had resisted sexual harassment.