“A brief story” – this is how the presiding judge describes the acquittal for Munich theater director Thomas Pekny. In the end, much remained unclear in the process.
Munich – The theater director Thomas Pekny has been acquitted of the charge of serious sexual abuse by the Munich I district court.
Ultimately, no evidence could be provided, said the presiding judge Nikolaus Lantz on Wednesday. The chamber had doubts about the charge.
Judge Lantz emphasized that the acquittal for the 69-year-old director of the comedy in the Bayerischer Hof in Munich was “a tight story”. Maybe everything was “as harmless” as Pekny said it, Lantz said. “If not, then you have been very lucky.” Nevertheless, it was an acquittal. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The public prosecutor had accused Pekny of having approached drunk women at the Oktoberfest and taking them to the rehearsal rooms of his theater. There he is said to have passed on the sleeping women and made videos and photos of them. The original indictment had included serious sexual abuse, but in her plea, prosecutor Laura Wittschurky had seen rape in one case and demanded a total of four years and three months.
Pekny had denied the sexual abuse allegations in the process. “I would never do something like that without asking first,” he read about his defense attorney Eva Maria Krötz. The women agreed. This could not have been ruled out with the certainty necessary for a conviction, the court found.
Three cases were charged, but only one of the women concerned had been identified. When she gave testimony at the beginning of the trial, the young woman, who was 20 years old at the time of the recording and was still a student, had denied her consent. If she’d agreed, she wouldn’t need therapy now, she said.
The court rated the young woman’s statement as very credible. However, since she has no memories of the period of the accused or some time before and after, the court could not rule out that she gave her consent in her case – as said by Pekny.
However, the issue for Pekny is not yet settled with the acquittal: On the one hand, the public prosecutor’s office is checking whether they will appeal against the judgment, on the other hand there are indications of possible other potentially affected persons. A woman came forward after the first day of the trial. In addition, on Wednesday, shortly before the start of the negotiations, a man called the presiding judge who said his wife could be another victim and wanted to testify. However, both were no longer taken into account in the current proceedings. dpa
