[Warning: disturbing images in the video of the article]
>__Fabienne W. is traumatized and angry. Her alleged tormentors are known. But the authorities are treating her with kid gloves, she thinks. The police are accused of criminally untenable conduct and unprofessionalism. The authorities deny the allegations.__
>Fabienne W. is invited to dinner on December 28, 2021. To the private apartment of a lawyer in Schaffhausen. She is an amateur musician and believes the man is interested in her music. But on site she noticed that the lawyer wanted to dissuade her from filing a complaint against one of his friends. He is said to have raped Fabienne W. about a week earlier.
>The amateur musician told the “Rundschau” that she did not want to refrain from filing a complaint. One thing is clear: a few hours later she was brutally beaten in the lawyer’s apartment. She suspects it was an attempt at intimidation. The accused lawyer and three of his colleagues, who were also in the apartment that night, deny this. They say that Fabienne W. was causing a disturbance and that they were only trying to calm her down.
>The next morning, Fabienne W. is found in Schaffhausen’s old town: beaten so badly that she had to be taken to hospital. The Schaffhausen police, who were alerted, begin their investigations that same day.
>__Beating at the lawyer’s apartment – cameras record__
>Thanks to surveillance camera footage, we now know what happened in the lawyer’s apartment in the last hours of the night of the crime. As the files show, the lawyer installed two such cameras in his apartment.
>After the night of the crime, the images from these cameras are to be secured in order to reconstruct the events. The public prosecutor’s order to the police is therefore, according to the search warrant: “The storage media found during the house search are to be searched and evaluated.”
>On site, the lawyer tells the police that the surveillance recordings are “saved on a computer.” However, the screen for this computer has broken. He shows the police pictures from a surveillance camera on his mobile phone, which the police film from there: without sound and in poor quality.
>__Questionable investigative steps__
>Konrad Jeker is one of the most renowned criminal defense lawyers in Switzerland. In an interview with the “Rundschau,” he describes the actions of the Schaffhausen police as “unbelievable.” And he continues: “This contradicts all known criminal standards.” The police “simply did not fulfill” the order.
>The next day, the police have to go to the lawyer’s house for a second search. They have now noticed that there are not just one, but two surveillance cameras in the apartment. Their mission this time: “The storage media or electronic devices found during the house search must be searched and evaluated.”
>The police return with a USB stick containing the surveillance images from the last hours of that night – the lawyer helped them to secure the images. For Konrad Jeker it is clear: “This order was not carried out either.”
>__Mobile phone evaluated a year later__
>In spring 2023, more than a year after the incidents of December 29, 2021, the Schaffhausen police must carry out another house search at the lawyer’s home. The police’s mission is to “secure and evaluate the mobile phones that can be found”, if there are several.
>The police return with a cell phone, which the lawyer voluntarily hands over and has sealed. No other phones were searched.
>”The same thing again: job not done,” says Konrad Jeker. The defense attorney’s conclusion on the police’s investigation work: They failed to carry out the prosecutor’s orders on several occasions. “This is nothing other than insubordination.”
>__Authorities reject allegations__
>The “Rundschau” newspaper in the canton of Schaffhausen confronted the police, prosecutor’s office and justice department with the allegations. Citing the ongoing proceedings, the authorities refused to comment on camera. In a joint written statement, they rejected all allegations as baseless and false (see box “Statement by the Schaffhausen authorities”).
>The accused lawyer did not respond to several inquiries from the editorial team.
>__Fabienne W. traumatized and angry__
>Fabienne W. now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She has trouble sleeping and mood swings, and almost only keeps to herself. But she is also angry. And says that it was not just the massive attacks that traumatized her, but also the actions of the authorities, who obviously treated the perpetrators with kid gloves.
>The proceedings for rape and sexual assault have since been discontinued. Fabienne W. has lodged an appeal against this. No charges have yet been brought against the main suspects in connection with the serious abuse. All suspects are presumed innocent.
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[Warning: disturbing images in the video of the article]
>__Fabienne W. is traumatized and angry. Her alleged tormentors are known. But the authorities are treating her with kid gloves, she thinks. The police are accused of criminally untenable conduct and unprofessionalism. The authorities deny the allegations.__
>Fabienne W. is invited to dinner on December 28, 2021. To the private apartment of a lawyer in Schaffhausen. She is an amateur musician and believes the man is interested in her music. But on site she noticed that the lawyer wanted to dissuade her from filing a complaint against one of his friends. He is said to have raped Fabienne W. about a week earlier.
>The amateur musician told the “Rundschau” that she did not want to refrain from filing a complaint. One thing is clear: a few hours later she was brutally beaten in the lawyer’s apartment. She suspects it was an attempt at intimidation. The accused lawyer and three of his colleagues, who were also in the apartment that night, deny this. They say that Fabienne W. was causing a disturbance and that they were only trying to calm her down.
>The next morning, Fabienne W. is found in Schaffhausen’s old town: beaten so badly that she had to be taken to hospital. The Schaffhausen police, who were alerted, begin their investigations that same day.
>__Beating at the lawyer’s apartment – cameras record__
>Thanks to surveillance camera footage, we now know what happened in the lawyer’s apartment in the last hours of the night of the crime. As the files show, the lawyer installed two such cameras in his apartment.
>After the night of the crime, the images from these cameras are to be secured in order to reconstruct the events. The public prosecutor’s order to the police is therefore, according to the search warrant: “The storage media found during the house search are to be searched and evaluated.”
>On site, the lawyer tells the police that the surveillance recordings are “saved on a computer.” However, the screen for this computer has broken. He shows the police pictures from a surveillance camera on his mobile phone, which the police film from there: without sound and in poor quality.
>__Questionable investigative steps__
>Konrad Jeker is one of the most renowned criminal defense lawyers in Switzerland. In an interview with the “Rundschau,” he describes the actions of the Schaffhausen police as “unbelievable.” And he continues: “This contradicts all known criminal standards.” The police “simply did not fulfill” the order.
>The next day, the police have to go to the lawyer’s house for a second search. They have now noticed that there are not just one, but two surveillance cameras in the apartment. Their mission this time: “The storage media or electronic devices found during the house search must be searched and evaluated.”
>The police return with a USB stick containing the surveillance images from the last hours of that night – the lawyer helped them to secure the images. For Konrad Jeker it is clear: “This order was not carried out either.”
>__Mobile phone evaluated a year later__
>In spring 2023, more than a year after the incidents of December 29, 2021, the Schaffhausen police must carry out another house search at the lawyer’s home. The police’s mission is to “secure and evaluate the mobile phones that can be found”, if there are several.
>The police return with a cell phone, which the lawyer voluntarily hands over and has sealed. No other phones were searched.
>”The same thing again: job not done,” says Konrad Jeker. The defense attorney’s conclusion on the police’s investigation work: They failed to carry out the prosecutor’s orders on several occasions. “This is nothing other than insubordination.”
>__Authorities reject allegations__
>The “Rundschau” newspaper in the canton of Schaffhausen confronted the police, prosecutor’s office and justice department with the allegations. Citing the ongoing proceedings, the authorities refused to comment on camera. In a joint written statement, they rejected all allegations as baseless and false (see box “Statement by the Schaffhausen authorities”).
>The accused lawyer did not respond to several inquiries from the editorial team.
>__Fabienne W. traumatized and angry__
>Fabienne W. now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She has trouble sleeping and mood swings, and almost only keeps to herself. But she is also angry. And says that it was not just the massive attacks that traumatized her, but also the actions of the authorities, who obviously treated the perpetrators with kid gloves.
>The proceedings for rape and sexual assault have since been discontinued. Fabienne W. has lodged an appeal against this. No charges have yet been brought against the main suspects in connection with the serious abuse. All suspects are presumed innocent.