Lübeck Regional Court
Sexual abuse: Public prosecutor appeals against verdict for former public prosecutor
The defendant (3rd from left) sits next to his lawyers in the courtroom of the Lübeck regional court before the start of the trial for serious sexual abuse of a child
© Marcus Brandt / DPA
A prosecutor sexually abused his son and claimed he was a sleepwalker. An appeal has now been lodged against the suspended sentence that was subsequently handed down at the Lübeck Regional Court.
On February 14, the regional court sentenced the 52-year-old defendant to a suspended sentence of one year and six months. Four months of the sentence are considered to have already been served. The son was eight years old at the time of the crime at the end of March 2019.
Lübeck Regional Court sentenced him to a suspended sentence
Defense attorney Johann Schwenn had already stated after the verdict: “It is clear that the verdict will be appealed.” The defense, like the prosecution, had demanded an acquittal.
The man did not deny the terrible event, but claims that he acted in his sleep that night: The 7th Grand Criminal Chamber does not follow the defense’s theory that the man committed the crime while sleepwalking. The trial was less about the sexual acts themselves than about the circumstances that night in the family’s bedroom at the end of March 2019.
When his wife confronted the defendant with the allegations the next morning, he had no memory of the incident. He later turned himself in. His wife filed for divorce.