A Frederiksberg court has convicted the notorious ‘Tunnel man’ and sentenced him to eight years in prison followed by immediate expulsion from Denmark.
The 41-year-old family man, who gained his nickname after committing his crimes in and around a pedestrian tunnel in the northwestern Copenhagen suburb of Tingbjerg, was found guilty on a number of charges, including rape, attempted rape and robbery of 12 women between 2009 and 2012.
The man collapsed upon hearing the verdict and needed assistance from his lawyer, interpreter and two policemen to get back into his chair. The defendant appealed against the decision immediately after the sentencing.
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Felled by DNA evidence
Strong DNA evidence laid the foundation for the conviction, although the court found in four of the instances that there was no evidence of attempted rape, but that the man had used violence, or the threat of violence, to try to force the women to perform “sexual relations other than sex” and indecent exposure.
The prosecutor, Line Steffensen, had asked for a nine-year prison sentence with expulsion, while Michael Bjørn Hansen, the defence lawyer, wanted a five-year prison sentence without expulsion.
Aside from prison and expulsion, the man will also have to pay compensation to his victims.
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A relief-inducing verdict
At least one of his victims, a 25-year-old woman, was present in the courtroom and said that the verdict was a great relief to her.
“I’m relieved because I and others won’t risk meeting him at night any longer. I didn’t dare hope for an expulsion,” the woman, who attended the sentencing as part of therapy to move on, told Ekstra Bladet tabloid. “I wanted to stop being afraid of him.”
The man, who is Moroccan, came to Denmark in 1998 and has a wife who suffers from sclerosis. Together they have two sons.
