At Wednesday's trial opening the accused family father told Freiburg's regional court [Landgericht Freiburg] that he attacked out of inexplicable aggression.

He denied having sexual motives. 

"I know that what I did is unforgivable. In me was aggression but not sexual craving," the long-distance driver and family father told the court in a statement read out by his lawyer.

"I'm distraught over what happened," he said, adding that he was drunk and struck the jogger with a schnapps bottle.

Prosecutors accuse Catalin C. of raping and murdering the 27-year-old female jogger in a wooded area amid vineyards near the small town of Endingen in November 2016.

Her body was found after a days-long search, culminating in a publicized search for the perpetrator.

German press rules typically bar the full naming of an accused.

Heavy rod used

Public prosecutor Tomas Orschitt said the accused had lurked in wait for the woman and struck her on the head repeatedly.

A heavy object was used, probably a metal rod. The victim had had no chance to defend herself, Orschitt said.

The long-distance driver is also accused of murdering a 20-year-old woman exchange student from Lyon, France, in January 2014 at Kufstein in Austria, 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Endingen.

Matching forensic clues implicating the driver were found at both crime scenes. Mobile phone data also placed him near Endingen at the time of the lone jogger's murder.

Prosecutor Orschitt on Wednesday said the murder weapon used in Kufstein was also a metal rod.

Seven-month police hunt

The accused was traced last June after an intensive seven-month police investigation.

The Freiburg trial had been set to run for eight days, with a verdict expected in December.

Only then are Austrian judicial authorities expected to decide whether to seek the man's extradition for trial. 

Austrian experts are due to testify at the Freiburg trial as witnesses on the Kufstein murder.

Endingen lies in rolling wine-growing country between the Rhine river and the Kaiserstuhl, a peak on the western fringe of the Black Forest. 

Taking part as ancillary plaintiffs at the Freiburg trial are the murdered woman's husband and her parents. 

ipj/rt (dpa, AFP)