Cologne attacks: First trial for sexual assault on New Year's Eve begins

The first trial for sexual offences has got under way in Cologne over alleged attacks on women in the German city during New Year celebrations. 

A 26-year-old Algerian is charged with attempted sexual assault and theft. He is accused of being part of a group of 10 men who surrounded and groped a woman in the main railway station in the early hours of New Year's Day. The large-scale sexual assaults and robberies by men of North African and Arab appearance shocked Germany. More than 1,000 criminal complaints were filed, hundreds of them alleging sexual assault, after women reported being surrounded by groups of men in and around Cologne's main station.