Man Tricked Women Into Shocking Themselves: Court

A court in Germany has convicted a 31-year-old man of attempted murder in more than a dozen cases for tricking women into giving themselves electric shocks while he watched over the internet. Munich's regional court on Monday sentenced the man, identified only as David G. for privacy reasons, to 11 years' imprisonment. Court spokesman Florian Gliwitzky said the defendant was sent to a secure psychiatric clinic for treatment, the AP reports. Prosecutors said the man contacted women online, claiming to be a doctor seeking paid volunteers for a medical experiment on pain perception. He then persuaded them to attach a homemade contraption to the electricity mains and their extremities while he watched and issued instructions.

Judges concluded that 13 of the 88 cases constituted attempted murder because the defendant had told the women to hold the cables to their temples or feet, causing electricity to flow through their brains or hearts. The court also convicted him of two counts of serious bodily harm and five counts of premeditated bodily harm, of breaching the victims' privacy by filming them, and of illegally claiming to have a medical degree.

(More electrical shocks stories.)