Processes
Child abuse while sleepwalking? Judgment awaited
A verdict is expected in the abuse trial against a former public prosecutor. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
An ex-public prosecutor is on trial in Lübeck because he is said to have abused his son. The lawyer stated that he had been sleepwalking that night. Does the court consider him guilty?
Did a former prosecutor abuse his son while sleepwalking? In an unusual trial, a former prosecutor has been facing charges of serious sexual abuse since the end of January Lübeck Regional Court is responsible. The case is complex. Today (9:00 a.m.) the 7th major criminal chamber in the Hanseatic city wants to announce its verdict.
During the last few days of the hearing in room 163 of the regional court, the lawyer did not want to comment on the allegations – unlike during the investigation. At that time he stated that he did not remember the alleged crime at the end of March 2019. He later claimed that he had been sleepwalking that night.
The prosecutor and the defendant’s defense each called for an acquittal in the case on February 8th. In its final application, the co-plaintiff pleaded for a conviction for serious sexual abuse, but without a specific sentence. The outcome of the trial depends largely on whether the chamber believes that the defendant was sleepwalking that night. Then he could be considered not guilty in the legal sense.
No memory of the incident
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, to the German Press Agency. When sleepwalking, motor activities occur during sleep without the person being fully awake.
According to the indictment, the defendant, who was sleeping in a bed with his then eight-year-old son, is said to have performed sexual acts on the child 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 says. 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.
The fact that the regional court is even dealing with the case is due to the co-plaintiff. According to earlier information from the Kiel public prosecutor’s office, both they and the Schleswig-Holstein public prosecutor’s office did not consider a conviction to be likely. According to the authorities, it was undisputed that an act had taken place. Only after successful so-called enforcement proceedings before the Higher Regional Court did the public prosecutor’s office have to file charges. The child’s mother had it checked whether the discontinuation of the proceedings was correct.