German father charged for protecting his daughter against sexual assault by migrant

At the Munich Hackerbrücke train station, a drunk 28-year-old migrant from Eritrea grabbed a German woman under her skirt on Tuesday.

When her father saw the sexual assault, he punched the African man in the face to make him stop.

An employee of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn, witnessed the incident and alerted federal police.

The German police decided to file two charges: One against the migrant for sexual assault and one against the father for causing bodily harm.

Many Germans were shocked by the case against the father, believing the man acted in defence of his daughter. Comments below a Facebook post regarding the charges show that many do not understand why the father is being punished for protecting his daughter.

“It is up to the judiciary to assess the case. There is a suspicion that there were two crimes, one sexual harassment and the other a physical injury. The police are required by law to bring both,” spokeswoman Petra Wiedmann of the Munich police says.

She advises people to use ‘other options’ when a crime occurs at the station. People should address the security forces on the ground in a preventative way if something suspicious occurs, she adds.