Germany: Man Convicted in Pelicot-Style Rape Case

A Chinese student, Zhongyi J*, has been convicted in Munich of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over several months. The crime occurred within a Telegram chat group where men coordinated sexual violence and exchanged evidence of their acts. J*, 27, admitted to the court in February that he understood the severity of his actions and their devastating impact.

Today, J* received a sentence of 11 years and three months for two attempted murders and seven cases of aggravated rape. The judge called the crimes “monstrous acts,” highlighting the legal system’s exposure to unprecedented scenarios. The case mirrors the prolonged abuse by Dominique Pelicot in France, with J* accused of repeatedly drugging and raping his neighbor between February 2024 and December 2024.

Dehumanization and Code Words

Members of the Telegram group, dubbed the “German Driving School,” used coded language to plan their attacks. “Looking for a car” signified searching for a new victim, while “oil” or “fuel” referred to sedatives. Women were likened to “cars” and “dead pigs” in their conversations. This method of anonymizing victims and normalizing violence became a key aspect of the group’s operations.

“What I think makes this case particularly striking […] is simply the dehumanization that becomes so clear in the way the perpetrators treat the victims: comparing them to cars or even calling them dead pigs,” said Charlotte Hirz, a psychologist at LARA, a Berlin-based center for sexual violence survivors.

According to Hirz, such online groups amplify misogynistic tendencies by creating a sense of detachment. “If there’s no social corrective, or no one looking in from the outside to say, ‘What’s going on here?’ or ‘Are you guys actually crazy?’, then of course these violent fantasies can gain much more traction,” she explained.

The STRG_F investigative team at German public broadcaster NDR spent over a year exposing these networks. Chat groups with hundreds to tens of thousands of members discussed methods for drugging women and shared recordings of alleged assaults. One user posted, “It’s not rape if she doesn’t know it happened.” Online stores also provided links to date rape drugs within these groups.

Dapeng Z*, the group’s leader in Frankfurt, was the first to be arrested after multiple victims in Hesse filed complaints. In January 2021, he sedated a female friend by mixing a drug into her meal, raped her, and recorded the incident using a phone, camera, and GoPro. He later targeted colleagues, perpetrating similar acts. Another member, Tong Z* from Berlin, was convicted in August 2025 for drugging and raping a woman during a date, while secretly filming others through hidden bathroom cameras.

By January 2024, Z* began focusing on women seeking to sublet apartments. At viewings, he used a cloth soaked in anesthetic to incapacitate them, then committed rape and documented the assaults. Four victims recalled the events and reported them to police, leading to Z*’s arrest in November 2024. The case underscores how digital platforms can facilitate systematic abuse, blurring the lines between crime and routine.