‘Socket sadist’: David G (pictured) persuaded women and girls to give themselves potentially-fatal electric shocks
A German ‘socket sadist’ who posed as a doctor in order to coax girls as young as 13 to give themselves electric shocks while he watched on Skype has been jailed.
David G, 30, was found guilty of 13 counts of attempted murder at Munich high court on Monday and sentenced to 11 years in jail.
The court heard how he posed as a doctor conducting a fake pain study in order to persuade dozens of young girls to give themselves life-threatening electric shocks.
David paid some of his victims amounts ranging from £200 to £3,000 in order to participate.
He then instructed them how to make devices that used electrodes placed on their temples with one side attached to a plug socket and another to a metal spoon or similar object that would then be touched against their naked foot.
The victims then administered shocks to themselves over Skype as he watched, and sometimes recorded what they were doing.
In some cases, younger victims were strapped to a chair and their parents carried out the shocks for them.
Prosecutors said David derived sexual pleasure from watching the acts.
‘The victims believed he was a scientist and there was no danger to them to carry out the experiment, that’s why they agreed,’ prosecutors said.
‘But the accused was fully aware that 230 volts was enough to kill a person.’
Evidence: A picture released by criminal investigators shows some of the equipment used in the non-existent ‘experiment’
The court was shown one of the videos in which a 27-year-old woman chats to David G after agreeing to take part in the bogus study.
In the footage, the woman is allegedly seen using a spoon and nail to conduct electricity from a socket to her naked feet.
She is seen screaming loudly before grabbing her foot in what prosecutors say was a combination of two fetishes for the suspect.
The woman, from Berlin, told the court that she had been desperate for money when she signed up for the ‘experiment’ four years ago.
‘I had little money, and was looking for jobs on eBay ads,’ she told the court, saying his apparent academic title had persuaded her it was safe.
David would watch online as the women shocked their feet and record the encounters for his sexual gratification
‘The accused contacted me and said he was working as a scientist and was conducting experiments into electric stimulation.
‘He really made a serious impression. I agreed as I needed the money.’
David G allegedly asked her to ‘keep your foot on there longer and show your foot to the camera’.
When she protested, he allegedly said: ‘Yes, unfortunately, I need you to do it on both feet.’
‘In one of the attempts, I caught the cable and got a large shock,’ she recalled.
‘Every muscle cramped, my back spasmed, I struggled to breathe and was lying on the floor. On my hand I got a blister.’
She told the court: ‘230v of electricity were sent through my body, I realised it was a stupid idea. Who would build something with spoons and cables and connect it to the power?
‘I was so embarrassed. But he appeared so serious and I just wanted the money.’
The case allegedly came to light when a 16-year-old was taken to hospital after falling unconscious.
Prosecutors said she had told doctors about the experiment and the medics then went to police.
David G, an IT specialist, was arrested in February 2018.
His defence lawyers said he struggles with Asperger’s syndrome and that he should be placed on parole for two years on charges of impersonating a doctor and negligent physical injury.
But judge Thomas Bott found him guilty of 13 charges of attempted murder along with grievous bodily harm, misuse of title, and damage to the victims’ private lives.
Bott said it was particularly disturbing that David instructed the women and girls to place metal objects near their temples — ‘meaning that the human brain was subjected to an electric current.’