Status: 02/28/2023 10:54 a.m
In more than 120 cases, a man is said to have abused children. The 45-year-old had posed as a babysitter on online platforms. A court sentenced him to 14 years in prison and subsequent preventive detention.
In the Wermelskirchen case, the Cologne Regional Court sentenced the accused to 14 years and six months in prison for child abuse. The court also ordered preventive detention. This corresponded approximately to the request of the prosecutor’s office: they demanded the maximum permissible sentence of 15 years, since the crimes of the accused were particularly serious.
Court sentences abusers in the Wermelskirchen case to 14 years in prison
Rupert Wiederwald, WDR, daily news at 3:00 p.m., February 28, 2023
The 45-year-old German offered himself as a babysitter via online platforms and thus came into contact with his victims. The IT expert also recorded his actions on video. During the trial he confessed to the crimes and described them as “disgusting”.
More than 120 cases of sexual violence
The man was charged with more than 120 cases of sexual violence against 13 children from 2005 to 2019. According to the indictment, the youngest victim was a girl around one month old. The uncovering of the case had caused a stir because, like other abuse complexes in recent years, it had led to numerous further investigations. The man was arrested by police special forces in December 2021 in a house he shared with his wife.
During the trial, a police officer reported on the witness stand that they wanted to arrest the accused on the “open computer” at the time in order to gain access to the videos of the crimes and to the collection of other child pornography. During the access, the man was in a video conference with work colleagues.