In the 1960s, the pastor Dillinger was first put on record for a sexual assault. A report now accuses the Diocese of Trier of not having reacted appropriately. There were also failures by the public prosecutor’s office.
In the end, the third and currently final report comprises another 96 pages. The former public prosecutors Ingo Hromada and Jürgen Brauer spent a year on behalf of an independent investigation commission looking through three investigation files from public prosecutors, more than 4,000 photos, several thousand pages of records and publications by Edmund Dillinger. They followed the mostly vague leads through West Germany, to France, to Africa.
Hromada and Brauer interviewed 50 affected people – witnesses who had gotten to know Dillinger as a student pastor, as a pastor, as a religious teacher or as part of Africa Aid.
At least 19 victims of sexual violence
However, the information is rarely concrete; it is often a character description. Dillinger is considered self-centered and has bragged about his contacts with celebrities and high church dignitaries. Witnesses describe him as “really conservative.” He demonized homosexuality, but lived it freely himself.
“A very large number of people, although the number cannot be quantified,” were affected by Dillinger’s sexually motivated behavior. They were photographed and touched in sexualized poses and had to fend off advances.
The report specifically speaks of “sexual abuse of varying degrees of severity” in the case of 19 people. However, eight of those affected could not be clearly identified – also because many witnesses did not want to give names. The acts are said to have taken place between 1961 and 2018.
In 1964, Dillinger was first recorded in the diocese of Trier after he was said to have touched two boys on the thighs. In 1970 he is said to have sexually assaulted a 15-year-old during a trip to Rome. He is said to have taken photos of the young person’s private parts and then touched them.
In 1972 he is said to have photographed another young man in an obviously sexualized pose and sold the photo to an agency. Against the victim’s wishes, the picture was ultimately printed in an erotic magazine for homosexuals.
Harsh criticism of the diocese and Public prosecutor
In the cases on record, the diocese of Trier did not react appropriately and the crimes were even covered up, according to the report. No contact was sought with the victims and no investigation was carried out. The punishment, including two weeks in a monastery and a transfer to the Archdiocese of Cologne, was not appropriate.
Dillinger was also not adequately monitored after the first allegations, even though there was a risk of repetition. Hromada and Brauer also criticize the diocese’s “questionable” record keeping. Eight bundles from different parts of the diocese leadership had to be evaluated. The documents were often not even kept chronologically.
The report also sees serious failings at the Saarbrücken public prosecutor’s office. In July 2023, the authorities had large parts of the evidence found in Dillinger’s home, including meticulously kept calendars and notebooks from several decades, prematurely burned. And this despite the fact that Hromada and Brauer had submitted a request to inspect the files days before. The investigators concluded that the application was “deliberately ignored” by the public prosecutor’s office and the investigation was “largely” thwarted.
Active investigation discontinued
With the final report, the research in Germany has now been completed – “subject to further reports from witnesses.” A hope on which the investigations in Africa are based.
Dillinger founded an association, CV Afrika-Hilfe, in the 1970s and traveled to Cameroon and Togo several times – apparently even under the alias Eric Delay. In return, he took young African students with him to Germany or Rome.
In the search for witnesses and possible victims, Hromada and Brauer are primarily supported by church institutions, such as Missio Aachen. However, inquiries and requests for help to the Foreign Office were repeatedly ignored.