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Policewoman in Düsseldorf (symbolic image)

Photo: Roberto Pfeil / dpa

In Düsseldorf, a man is said to have brutally attacked and robbed a severely disabled person last July.

Now police have identified a suspect.

The man, who was 26 at the time of the crime, has now confessed to the crime, as the public prosecutor and police reported. 

He is said to have observed the 46-year-old victim as she visited a post office.

The suspect then followed the victim to his apartment.

At the front door he gave the 46-year-old, who relies on a walker, a punch, took the keys and forced him into the apartment.

Always asking for money

That's where the ordeal began for the 46-year-old.

He was beaten and kicked and strangled with a cable over a long period of time.

During the abuse, the robber repeatedly demanded money.

Before he left the apartment, he took off his T-shirt because it was covered in the victim's blood.

He took a replacement shirt from the victim's closet.

He disappeared with a cell phone as his loot.

The 46-year-old had to be treated in hospital with serious injuries.

The perpetrator's DNA was recovered at the crime scene.

After months of comparing international databases, we finally found a hit in Poland.

The wanted man, who lives in the Rhineland, found out about the investigation and eventually turned himself in to the police.

A judge issued an arrest warrant for aggravated robbery.

kha/dpa