Robot seized by German police after teen says it sexually assaulted her
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COLOGNE, Germany (Courtroom Insider) — Police in the German city of Cologne seized a humanoid robot after it allegedly groped a teen.
The robot’s owner, a 16-year-old male, and his 19-year-old companion are now under investigation.
According to a news release from the Cologne Police Department, on the night of Oct. 10, an approximately 4-foot-tall red and gold robot approached a group of teenage girls outside a fast food restaruant sometime between 11:45 p.m. and midnight.
The robot came up behind a 16-year-old girl and grabbed her buttocks before making thrusting motions, the release states.
The robot’s owner and his 19-year-old companion are alleged to have filmed and livestreamed the assault on social media while commentating.
Police later arrived on scene, though the release does not say when, and contacted the individuals involved. Officers seized both suspects’ cellphones as evidence, as well as the robot, which had reportedly been stowed in the trunk of a Volkswagen car.
Cologne police are now investigating how the robot was controlled in an effort to determine whether the suspects deliberately controlled its actions, according to the release.
The owners of the robot have not received criminal charges but are considered suspects, Christoph Bermel, a spokesperson for the Cologne Police Department, said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press.
“We have not been aware of this phenomenon so far,” Bermel told the AP, adding that this is “new territory for us.”
CBS News reports one of the suspects later claimed on TikTok that the robot had accidentally bumped into the victim while trying to avoid another passerby, however other videos of the robot have surfaced on TikTok showing the robot performing sexually suggestive motions after colliding with the victim.
The incident has created a new problem, according to the CBS News. Under current German law, a criminal charge for sexual harassment requires physical contact between two people. Because one of the individuals involved is a robot, the case could be difficult to prosecute. Instead, police are reportedly investigating the case “on suspicion of a sexually motivated insult,” the news outlet reports.