‘Valium rapist’ facing Malta charges, under arrest in Bulgaria

A Dutchman who is the subject of an ongoing rape compilation of evidence in Malta has been detained in Sofia for yet another brutal rape on New Year’s Eve – one of a string of similar sex attacks he allegedly carried out across the globe.

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry said suspect Johann Frederick Stellingwerf had been arrested and later placed under house arrest. He is understood to have been stopped at a Sofia hostel, whilst in transit to Malta.

According to interviews with the 32-year-old victim, the man had met her at a bar, before he invited her home and spiked her drink. The barely-conscious woman was then brutally raped, after which Stellingwerf threw her out into the street, where she was found by a police patrol. Bulgarian police reportedly found bloody marks inside his home.

The Sofia District Prosecutor’s Office has imposed a ban on Stellingwerf from leaving the country until the case is closed.

‘The Valium Rapist’

The son of two lawyers, the Dutch media described Stellingwerf as “a handsome and intelligent man who easily catches the attention of women.”

Sedative medication Valium has been found in the blood of some of the victims for whom he was detained and convicted, earning him the nickname ‘the Valium rapist’.

He had been charged in Malta in 2014, after his former girlfriend accused him of raping her several times over the span of two months. His Maltese lawyer, Jason Grima, had argued that the sex was consensual.

The man had later also filed criminal proceedings against his Maltese ex-girlfriend, accusing her of taking the law into her own hands when she took some of his belongings.

But the local case against Stellingwerf stalled after the Dutchman was detained in Spain over another rape.

His long history of sex crimes began in 2006, when, according to Dutch media, several women had come forward to the police to file reports of being sexually assaulted by the man. The scenario is always the same: Stellingwerf selected young girls – 18-year-olds whilst visiting bars and discos in the Amsterdam and Leiden area; he would then charm his way into buying them drinks, which would be spiked with a sedative, before raping them.

Stellingwerf, then 26, was arrested in Brazil in 2007, suspected of four rapes and one attempted rape. Dozens of witnesses testified against him during the case. In addition to his DNA at the scene, drugs were also found in his car. Stellingwerf denied all the allegations and claimed that the girls had willingly participated in the sexual encounters. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, which were later reduced to five years.

He then ventured to Poland, Malta and Spain. In Malta and Spain, more women came forward with rape claims.

But whilst on bail for the Malta rape case, he was arrested in Barcelona on a complaint by a young Spanish woman who accused him of sexual assault.

It is not clear when and how he arrived in Bulgaria. He is understood to have worked as a teacher there, but was fired after missing work too often.

Lawyers in Bulgaria have sharply criticised the magistrates’ decision to release the man, but according to the judges, the evidence of Stellingwerf’s criminal past was based only on publications on the Internet. The man had leased property and owned a registered company in Bulgaria, which eliminated the danger of him going into hiding, according to Sofia city magistrates.

In 2015, Stellingwerf had also challenged proceedings in Malta calling on the police to take action against the woman for making false rape accusations against him. In previous sittings, the courts had been told how the rape claim had been made at the same time that the woman was emailing nude photographs of herself to the accused.

In a Constitutional application filed by the Dutchman in November, he had claimed that the criminal proceedings against him had breached his fundamental rights, not least the decision to prohibit the press from reporting the case – an unnecessary measure as much of the evidence was purely of a legal nature.

The Maltese woman who had reported Stellingwerf to the police, accusing him of rape and fraud, was thenfound guilty of taking the law into her own hands after she held on to his possessions.

The court took into account the fact that the woman admitted that the clothes, which were obviously men’s clothing, and the IT equipment were used by the complainant.

It had admonished the woman for acting as if the items were hers and for taking the law into her own hands.

Magistrate Josette Demicoli had found the woman guilty of the charges brought against her and handed her a six-month conditional discharge.