German police in Cologne have confiscated a remote-controlled robot and opened an investigation into possible sexual harassment, after the machine touched a 16-year-old girl and made thrusting movements towards her, The Star reported.
The incident happened near midnight on 10 October, close to a fast-food outlet near the city centre. The 120cm device approached the girl from behind while she stood with her friends, grabbed her buttocks and made the movements before she screamed and moved away, according to the BBC.
Police believe the robot was operated by two young men found a block away a short time later: its suspected 16-year-old owner and a 19-year-old companion. Both are said to have filmed the incident and streamed it on social media while commentating on it.
Cologne police spokesman Christoph Bermel said the two were not charged but are considered suspects. Investigators are now trying to determine whether the robot’s movements were preprogrammed or driven in real time by someone at the controls. “We have not been aware of this phenomenon so far,” Bermel told the Associated Press, describing the case as “new territory for us”. Emergency teams dispatched to the scene found the robot in the trunk of a vehicle, where the teenage owner had placed it, a block away from the girl and her friends. The machine and both suspects’ mobile phones were seized as evidence.
Video of the incident circulating online shows the two young men escorting the robot towards a group of women on a busy night street, bumping into one and hugging others. One of them repeatedly shouts at the machine and pulls it back after it makes sexual gestures, as people around them laugh.
Germany made groping a sex crime in 2016, a reform driven by mass sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve 2015 in Cologne itself, where more than 1,200 criminal complaints were filed and 511 of them involved sexual assault, DW detailed. The offence now carries up to two years in jail or a fine.
Police released a photograph showing the red-and-gold robot dressed in a white tank top and black sweatpants, wearing a gold-coloured chain, sunglasses and a fake moustache.
In a follow-up post on Facebook, North Rhine-Westphalia police criticised comments posted about the case, warning that sharing or joking about such incidents can worsen the impact on any victim. Some of the remarks “can be a crossing of the line and in the worst case, a criminal offense”, the force said.
