Court acquits man accused of being 'Fecal Phantom'

Bratislava IV District Court acquitted a man identified by the police only as Martin M., who faced charges of attacking five women in Bratislava with faeces and urine back in 2015, according to TASR press agency. The prosecutor, who failed to prove that the defendant committed sexual attacks, filed an appeal against the verdict on the spot. This means that the verdict isn't yet valid, and the case will be transferred to an appellate court. The prosecution hinged its case on the testimonies of six female victims and a confession made by the accused during the investigation, which he later retracted. Martin M. denied before the court that he committed the attacks. The judge put considerable weight on the professional opinions of experts, who detected no sexual deviancy in the accused. At the same time, the experts claimed that only an individual suffering from sexual deviancy could commit such attacks, which the media referred to as the work of the 'Fecal Phantom'.