The Berlin police continued to search for a convicted rapist on Thursday. The 38-year-old, who is serving a multi-year sentence in Berlin-Tegel, did not return from an unaccompanied exit to the prison at the weekend and is still on the run. Mike L. is said to have seriously injured his ex-wife with a knife on Sunday. The “Bild” newspaper first reported on the case on Wednesday evening.
Mike L. had almost served his sentence. According to Tagesspiegel information, he should be released in a month, a few days before Christmas. Since April 2020 he has been in custody, then in criminal custody. In January 2023 he was sent to the social therapy ward. From November 2023 he was accompanied out five times – each time there were no complaints.
He was certified to have had a positive course of treatment in the prison. For this reason and in order to prepare him for a life in freedom, he completed – as usual practice – several unaccompanied releases from September 2024, and from February 2025 also long-term releases. In May he was even able to attend further training. Every time everything went smoothly, according to security circles.
But now the relapse: He didn’t come back to prison at the weekend. On Sunday morning he is said to have ambushed his ex-wife in Lankwitz and attacked her with a knife. The woman was taken to hospital with serious injuries. She is already doing better and, according to Tagesspiegel information, she was released from the hospital on Wednesday. According to security sources, she has no permanent damage. The family is in close contact with the police, it said.
Police officers are actively on the streets searching for the man.
A speaker the Berlin police
An investigation is underway for grievous bodily harm. The search for the man is ongoing, it was said. “Police officers are actively on the streets looking for the man,” a police spokesman told Tagesspiegel. The Senate Judiciary Administration initially did not want to comment on the case.
Mike L. was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison in 2021 for serious rape, weapons possession, coercion and bodily harm, the “Bild” newspaper reported. On top of that, he was sentenced to two years in prison for an arson attack.
In April 2020, L. raped a woman. According to the report, the store manager is said to have fallen in love with his 23-year-old employee the year before. The relationship is said to have been strained by violence and jealousy. After she moved out, the woman is said to have obtained a no-contact order against the man.
Violence in relationships before
In the middle of the first Corona lockdown in 2020, he is said to have spotted the woman on a street and forced her into his car with a knife. The crime happened at night in the car on the island of Usedom (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). Police officers noticed the car with Berlin license plates the next day and rescued the woman.
Ten years ago, L. is said to have become violent in a relationship and was sentenced to 16 months in prison on probation.
