Man convicted of rape and drugging after putting powder in woman’s beer at hotel

A 65-year-old man has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for rape, attempted rape, and drugging after secretly dosing a woman’s drink with sleeping pills at a hotel in Odense, reports DR, citing a statement from Fyns Police.

The court found the man, from Vordingborg Municipality, guilty of attempting to rape a 40-year-old woman at Hotel Odeon in November 2025 after slipping the sedative Zopiclon into her beer without her knowledge. He was also convicted of raping the same woman in October 2025 while she was asleep or too intoxicated to resist, as well as recording the assaults without her consent.

Hotel staff alerted police after witnessing the man pour a white powder into the woman’s drink. Officers arrived to find the victim in a sedated state in the hotel room, leading to his arrest. Prosecutor Simone Dupont Hansen of Fyns Police praised the staff’s intervention, stating that the crime might otherwise have gone undetected.

The defendant has requested time to consider whether to appeal the ruling.