Murder Trial for Kenyan-German Teen Charged with Femicide Begins

Kenyan teen was last week brought in front of the Bonn Landgericht to answer to murder charges.

Kenyan teenager, Brian S. who has been in police custody since December last year was last week brought in front of the Bonn Landgericht where he has been accused of murdering a fellow teen Elma C.

Brian S. walked into the court room with his head covered behind a magazine. The softly spoken young man started the process by confusing the court when he gave a different year of birth as that earlier recorded. Brian S. claimed to have been born two years later than was earlier reported, making him 17 years old and not 19. This is important to the case because if he is a minor, then the media will no longer be allowed to cover and publicize the case.

The prosecutor is of the belief that Brian S. committed the murder in an attempt to hide an earlier crime. It’s believed that Brian S. raped Elma C. and chose to kill her when she threatened to have him arrested for it. The prosecutor claimed Brian S. must have suffocated Elma C. by covering her nose and mouth either using his hands or using a piece of cloth.

However, Brian S. denied this and told his lawyer, Michael Kurth, that Elma C. had insulted him and that was the reason for the murder.

READ: Kenyan-German Teen Arrested for Manslaughter in Bonn

The two teenagers met each other on that fateful night while hanging out with friends at the Rheinufer. Brian and Elma got into a conversation and decided to instead have a private moment together at a nearby Shisha bar without their friends. The two would then lose sight of the time leading to Elma missing the last bus at midnight and Brian offering to her to spend a night at his place at a homeless shelter, which she agreed to.

Two days later after frantically searching for Elma, her body was found at Brian’s home. Right on time it was considering Brian had already gotten rid of Elma’s handbag at the  Sieglarer Lake, where a passerby spotted it and the police used to track him down . In addition, he had also gotten trash bags and a shopping trolley ready to go get rid of her body.

Brian S. was born in Mombasa and moved to Germany with his family when he was only two years old. He was working as a cleaner and living in the homeless shelter while awaiting an apartment allocation by the local authorities. When he was not at the shelter, he was usually spending time at his sister’s in Bonn.

It was also discovered that Brian S. had quite a history with the police. In 2014, he was arrested for distributing pornographic material. In 2015, for stealing and in 2017 was suspected of sexually assaulting a child.

Brian is expected to take the witness stand on 4th June, he will however not comment on what happened that night, although he had already confessed having murdered Elma C. to the police during his arrest. In his version of events, Brian maintains that he did not rape Elma and the murder was an accident.

By the next court date, the court will be expected to have cleared up on Brian’s age and therefore on whether the case will continue to be followed up publicly.