Cologne sexual assault case collapses

Source: The Guardian

The first sexual assault charge to be brought after the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne has been dropped after witnesses failed to recognise the defendant.

The 26-year-old Algerian, named only as Farouk B, appeared in court in Cologne charged with sexually assaulting and stealing a phone from two women at the German city’s main railway station on New Year’s Eve.

Farouk and his 23-year-old brother, who was charged with theft, were accused of being part of a group of about 10 men who attacked a woman in a crowd in the station.

According to the charge sheet, several perpetrators surrounded the woman “with sexual motivation” for two or three minutes, during which the suspect allegedly groped her the buttocks and hip and attempted to grab her breast.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/06/cologne-sex-assault-attacks-case-collapses