A German electrician, aged 56, has been sentenced to jail for seven and a half years after being found guilty of attempted murder, kidnap and sexual abuse of a person “incapable of resistance”.
A panel of judges at Braga court also fixed financial damages of €10,000 to be paid to the victim – described as a young German woman aged 29.
According to reports, Gerhard Eugen Branz – already in preventive custody – brought the victim by car from Germany in February, allegedly on the pretext of getting her a job.
Instead he abused her, and finally abandoned her tied to a tree in the middle of the Gerês national park.
O Minho online explains, “she only didn’t die from cold, or being attacked by wolves because in her despair, lacerating her wrists, she managed to break the link of the ties and then scream across the hillsides until she was heard by footballers involved in a training session”.
