Lübeck
Ex-prosecutor sentenced to probation for raping his son
The defendant (3rd from left) sits next to his lawyers and has been accused of rape
© Marcus Brandt / DPA
Suspended sentence for rape and serious sexual abuse of his son for an ex-public prosecutor: The Lübeck regional court does not believe that the man committed the crime while sleepwalking.
The 7th Large Criminal Chamber does not believe the defendant’s earlier statements that he committed the crime while sleepwalking. In the trial that began at the end of January, the 52-year-old man did not comment on the allegations.
With its judgment, the regional court followed the co-plaintiff, namely the mother representing the minor son. Last week, she called for the man to be convicted of serious sexual abuse of the then eight-year-old boy, but refrained from specifying a specific sentence in her plea. However, the prosecutor and defense of the defendant demanded an acquittal.
Rape “gave him back his sense of power for a moment”
The trial was less about the sexual acts themselves and more about the circumstances that night in the family’s bedroom at the end of March 2019. “He reached into the boy’s pajama pants, touched his genitals and also the boy’s anus,” the lawsuit said. Shortly afterwards the father is said to have left the bedroom. When his wife confronted him with the allegations the next morning, the defendant had no memory of the incident. He later turned himself in. His wife filed for divorce.
“We assume that the act should be understood as a dysfunctional coping strategy,” said Judge von Lukowicz. The man was under professional pressure and the marriage was over. “The violent abuse of his son gave him back his sense of power for a moment.” It was a spontaneous act in a particularly stressful situation.
Conviction of the ex-prosecutor questionable for a long time
For a long time it didn’t look as if the former prosecutor in the case would even have to answer in court. Both the Kiel public prosecutor’s office itself and the Schleswig-Holstein public prosecutor’s office did not see a conviction of the lawyer as likely. According to the authorities, it was undisputed that an act had taken place. However, the child’s mother had it checked whether the termination of the proceedings was correct and was successful in the so-called enforcement proceedings before the Higher Regional Court. That’s why the public prosecutor had to file charges.
In principle, it is possible to do things while sleepwalking that would not correspond to one’s own moral compass when awake, said Thomas Pollmächer, director of the sleep medicine center at the Ingolstadt Clinic, at the start of the trial to the German Press Agency. When sleepwalking, motor activities occur during sleep without the person being fully awake. Most of the time these are everyday actions like walking around or moving furniture. The phenomenon typically occurs during deep sleep, usually in the first half of the night. Those affected may not remember the events or only very vaguely, says Pollmächer.