A German court has sentenced three men linked to a Telegram group called 'German Driving School' for drugging, filming, and raping multiple women, most of whom were of Chinese heritage. The group used coded language—'fuel' for sedatives and 'car' for targets—to coordinate assaults between 2019 and 2024.
Key Sentences and Details
Dapeng Z, a 44-year-old IT engineer and the group's admin, received 14 years in prison for aggravated rape and attempted murder. Zhongyi J, a 28-year-old student, was sentenced to more than 11 years on similar charges. Tong Z, 26, was earlier sentenced to five years and nine months for aggravated rape, dangerous bodily harm, and privacy violations. All but one of the eight group members were Chinese nationals.
According to court documents, the men administered life-threatening doses of drugs to their victims. One victim, a woman with mild disabilities, was raped after being heavily sedated by a drink laced with drugs. She only learned of the abuse when police contacted her.
Impact on Victims
Ivy, a 27-year-old Chinese student and former girlfriend of Tong Z, said she was 'speechless' when police showed her nude photos taken secretly while she slept. 'In the photos, I looked like a prey,' she said. She now suffers from depression and PTSD and is seeing a psychiatrist. 'I really want to ask him – why did he do these things?' she added.
Eleven women were assaulted by Tong Z between 2019 and 2024. He secretly filmed them while asleep, showering, or dressing in Germany, Poland, Denmark, and China. He even used a spare key to enter a neighbor's home in Berlin to install a hidden camera.
Online Rape Communities
Dr Juliane Kloess, a senior lecturer in forensic clinical psychology at the University of Glasgow, said the rise of online rape communities is a global problem. 'The internet has allowed people to detach from how they would normally behave in the physical world,' she said, noting that such groups offer a sense of belonging and empowerment to marginalized individuals.
Tong Z described himself as 'God by day, devil by night' on Telegram. In messages, he coached Dapeng Z on filming assaults: 'You can bring a GoPro plus a phone, in case your hands are full.' The two exchanged over 2,000 messages in less than a year. Tong Z claimed he would wait one to two years before using footage to blackmail victims, noting that one woman's crying during coercion made him 'extremely aroused.'
Arrests and Evidence
Dapeng Z was arrested in November 2024 after victims reported him. Police found the Telegram group on his devices, leading to Tong Z's arrest. A search of Tong Z's residence uncovered condoms, women's underwear, syringes, prescription sedatives, and hard drives with over 2TB of footage, including separate folders for each victim.
The court determined Tong Z's motive stemmed from 'dehumanising misogyny.' In a personal statement, Tong Z admitted to all charges and said he felt 'immense shame.' He described difficulty forming social relationships, isolation, and becoming 'absorbed in digital images, videos and fantasies.'
