German prosecutors are investigating footballer Jerome Boateng for allegedly tearing the ear of his girlfriend Kasia Lenhardt a year before her death.
The case against Boateng, which was first opened in 2019 before being shelved last year, has now been re-opened by prosecutors after new information emerged from the Berlin police inquiries that followed Lenhardt’s suicide.
Boateng is accused of intentionally injuring Lenhardt, a former Germany’s Next Top Model contestant, in October 2019 – a little over a year before the brutal public break-up that ended in her death in a Berlin apartment earlier this month.
The Bayern Munich player, 32, is also accused of assault in a separate case involving his ex-partner Sherin Senler, which is on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The incident involving Lenhardt is said to have taken place on October 3, 2019, prompting authorities to open an investigation in December that year.
The probe against Boateng was shelved six months later in June 2020, partly because Lenhardt had indicated she did not want to proceed with her claims.
But the case was re-opened on February 10 this year, just a day after Lenhardt was found dead in Berlin, said Anne Leiding, a spokeswoman for Munich prosecutors.
Prosecutors have not given details about the alleged injury, but Bild reports that Boateng is suspected of tearing his then-girlfriend’s earlobe.