The gazebo on plot 30 of the “Am Bergbusch” allotment garden in Münster-Kinderhaus no longer exists. It was torn down – and yet it is still symbolic of an incredible crime. A crime about which the head of the investigation, Joachim Proll, said after the case became known, that the police looked into an abyss: “That arouses anger and hatred for these people – if you can call them people at all.”
For serious sexual abuse of children in 29 cases, the main defendant Adrian V. now has to go to prison for 14 years and then to preventive detention due to the risk of repetition, the Münster district court ruled on Tuesday. The 28-year-old is considered a key figure in the trial with four other defendants.
The sentences for the other three men are: ten years in prison for a 36-year-old man from Hanover, eleven years and six months for a 43-year-old from Schorfheide in Brandenburg and twelve years for a 31-year-old from Staufenberg in Hesse. The court then ordered preventive detention for these men as well, largely following the public prosecutor’s request. Adrian V’s mother is supposed to be imprisoned for five years for aiding and abetting. The judgments are not yet final.
In the arbor of an allotment garden in Münster, Adrian V and three other men are said to have sexually abused a boy aged ten and five at the time. The hut has since been torn down.
(Photo: Guido Kirchner / dpa)
The presiding judge Matthias Pheiler described the sometimes serious acts of abuse in his judgment, but refrained from detailing the rape to protect the victims. “That exceeds anything that has been presented to this chamber so far,” said Pheiler, an experienced judge. The acts were “absolutely disturbing”, they were “habitual and merciless”.
In April 2020 – Germany was in the first partial lockdown – Adrian V. wanted to celebrate his 27th birthday in the gazebo in Münster. For this purpose, the IT specialist had previously lavishly equipped the garden shed with HD cameras above the double bed and the bunk bed. He took his then ten-year-old stepson with him. The care manager and father of three Enrico L. traveled from Schorfheide for the weekend, from Hanover IT expert Marco S. and from Staufenberg master craftsman Tobias S., who brought his five-year-old son into the gazebo. One of Adrian V’s guests also had a birthday.
For several days, the four grown men “took turns for hours on the worst,” as policeman Joachim Proll said at the time, attacked the two little boys. They committed the most severe sexual violence to them. Some of the boys are said to have been drugged by the men. Adrian V’s mother Carina V., a 46-year-old kindergarten teacher, had given her son the key to her gazebo – knowing what was going to happen there. The court is convinced of that. Carina V. is said to have brought the men breakfast and pizza rolls. Adrian V. warned his mother that she shouldn’t come in unannounced.
As evidence of Carina V.’s assistance, judge quoted Pheiler from chats and a photo taken in the arbor at breakfast. “She knew about her son’s pedophilia, she was aware of the abuse.” However, the court could not prove to Carina V. that she knew that the men had drugged some of the boys for the crimes. The court assessed this as mitigating the penalty.
The public was largely excluded from the process
The rapes in the gazebo were filmed for 30 hours with a video camera. The recordings became the most important evidence in the legal processing of one of the most extensive child abuse complexes in Germany. After Lügde and Bergisch Gladbach, Münster is the third abuse complex discovered in two years in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Since the fall, the Münster district court has been hearing, and the public was mostly excluded from the proceedings. The files comprise 20,000 pages. After more than 50 days of trial, during which more than 70 witnesses and seven experts were heard, the mammoth trial has now ended with a guilty verdict for the four defendants and the woman.
Adrian V. is said to have driven his stepson across Germany for years – and left men whom he had met over the Internet in holiday apartments, in cars and in his own apartment for sexual abuse. According to the judgment of the court, the acts that could be proven to him are only “the tip of the iceberg”. Adrian V. had remained silent about the allegations during the trial; Enrico L. and Marco S. had partially admitted the deeds.
The mother of the now eleven-year-old boy, Adrian V’s partner, is charged with aiding and abetting sexual abuse in another trial because she is said to have known about what had happened.
In addition, Adrian V. distributed gigantic amounts of photos and videos online showing acts of abuse. For this he had set up a specially cooled server room in the basement – and stole electricity from his neighbors, for which he had to pay the Münster municipal utilities compensation of 100,000 euros. The now 28-year-old Adrian V. had been noticed by the authorities earlier, in 2016 and 2017 he had already been convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography.
Since the abuse complex in Münster was exposed, twelve charges against eleven men and two women have been brought up at the Münster Regional Court alone. Six men have already been convicted, three of them final. The investigation commission “Rose” of the Münster police has determined more than 50 suspects in the case after twelve months of investigation – about 30 of them are in custody across Germany.
“There are further indications of victims and perpetrators,” said a spokeswoman for the Münster police. Only recently had a man surrendered to the authorities in Berlin after a public manhunt. Investigators have so far evaluated 800 of the 1,400 IT evidence seized. At the Münster Regional Court, two public prosecutors are still exclusively dealing with the Münster case.
Lot 30 of the allotment garden is now to be turned into a public orchard meadow. In the spring, the allotment gardeners planted 15 trees there.
With material from the dpa