Sentenced to more than eight years in prison, a 61-year-old German man was found guilty of drugging, raping, and filming his wife for several years before posting the images online.

A court in Aachen, western Germany, sentenced a 61-year-old man on December 13 for drugging, raping, and filming his wife multiple times before posting the images online, CNN reports. The crimes, as determined by the court, took place between 2018 and 2024, although investigators suggested the offenses spanned nearly fifteen years.

The defendant, identified as Fernando P., worked as a maintenance worker at a school. He was found guilty of aggravated rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual coercion, dangerous violence, and serious invasion of privacy through the recording of images. The court determined that he administered sedatives to his wife without her knowledge before sexually assaulting her in their home, filming the acts, and sharing them in online chat groups and on various platforms.

The sentence handed down is eight years and six months in prison. However, some charges resulted in a partial acquittal. An appeal remains possible within the statutory time limit set by German law.

This case, described by CNN as unprecedented in German courts, has sparked numerous reactions, particularly due to the shortcomings of German law regarding sexual consent and the possession of rape material, which remains legal in the country. It comes a year after the highly publicized conviction of Dominique Pelicot in France, intensifying the European debate on sexual violence facilitated by digital networks.