“MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE”: POLICE IN GERMANY IDENTIFIED 1,600 POTENTIAL CHILD SEX-ABUSE SUSPECTS

Mon 26 July 2021:

More than 1,600 potential child sex abuse suspects have been identified by German police, who may have been involved in child pornography and zoophilia.

These individuals, according to the police, may have been members of online chat groups that traded child pornographic material, with many of the participants being children.

In the chat groups, the majority of the members were from the United States, Switzerland, Austria, and France. A large number of persons from various parts of the country were also

identified.

Now, the suspects are being processed and interrogated as part of “two large-scale trials” by police and prosecutors, the Bavarian police reported. The statement also added that if these suspects are proven guilty and convicted, they could face jail time for no less than a year.

This matter came to light when some police officers in the Bavarian town of Amberg came across a graphic advertisement that showed several images and videos of sex acts with children, animals, and adolescents.

“The distribution of child and adolescent pornography has increased markedly in recent years and is an area of focus for us in many investigations,” said Peter Krämer, deputy head of criminal police investigations in Amberg. “As well as people with pedophile tendencies, it is often children and adolescents who share material like this in group chats without thinking, and who therefore regularly open themselves up to criminal prosecution.”

As recently as June 30, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that more needs to be done in the fight against abuse of children and minors in Germany.

In a speech to the National Council Against Sexual Violence against Children and Minors, he called on witnesses to not look the other way, and demanded better resources for victims and their families.

Not an isolated case

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a million children and minors in Germany have suffered sexual violence. Most assaults are believed to go unreported. In 2020 German authorities registered some 14,500 cases of child sexual assault and over 18,000 cases of child pornography, which the state defines as depictions of sexual violence against children.

Before the Münster case, child sexual abuse rings in Lügde (2018) and Bergisch Gladbach (2019) had also made headlines in Germany. All three cities lie in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the regional government had previously beefed up investigative units probing abuse cases.

“To date, North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany’s only state to have done that,” says Julia von Weiler of the NGO “Innocence in Danger,” which raises awareness of sexual assault against children. “When more investigators are put to work, more cases are uncovered,” she told DW.

That’s why she believes that public shock at rising case numbers in police statistics is misplaced. “First and foremost, it’s a good thing. It means more cases are being reported. And if authorities in other German states had the courage, they would likewise uncover more cases,” von Weiler said.

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