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Defendant in the Hildesheim Regional Court
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
The Hildesheim Regional Court has sentenced an educator and a social worker to prison terms for incidents in their Gifhorn group.
As a spokesman said, the 57-year-old Johannes W. is to be jailed for three years and two months, his 61-year-old wife Maike W. received a suspended sentence of one year and three months.
The two of them led a group in Gifhorn for children and young people in need.
They took several protection orders into their care, around the clock, mostly for years.
According to the court, abuse and ill-treatment occurred at the facility.
Johannes W. was found guilty of child sexual abuse in two cases.
According to the court, the offenses occurred between 1998 and 2003.
He took a girl into the bathtub and asked her to touch his penis, which she did.
At that time she was between five and eight years old.
When the girl was eleven, according to the judgment, the educator assaulted her again.
He is said to have caressed her breast and urged her to touch his penis.
This time too the girl followed suit.
She lived in the group for 13 years from early childhood.
Diapers glued on top of each other
He is also said to have mistreated another girl.
He repeatedly forced her to wear multiple diapers taped on top of each other for days.
He also locked her in a cage for hours.
The girl lived in the residential group between the ages of 12 and 16.
The couple even recorded the wearing of the diapers.
During a police interrogation, the man had spoken of a kind of re-enactment to come to terms with previous traumas.
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Defendant in court with their lawyer (archive)
Photo:
Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
The defendant's wife was sentenced because she knew about the abuse but did not intervene.
The accused had commented on the allegations at the start of the trial, but before that the public was excluded at the request of the defense because their privacy was discussed.
The victims' privacy should also be protected.
The judgments corresponded to the demands of the prosecution and are not yet final.
Advice from a resident - further acts likely
The case started after a former resident went to the police in early 2019.
Before they were arrested, the couple had run the family-style living group for more than 25 years.
The social worker was in custody for a short time and her husband for a year.
Originally, the educator was charged with serious child sexual abuse in twelve cases and serious mistreatment of wards in four cases.
Four young women appeared as joint plaintiffs.
However, the allegations regarding two other former residents could not be proven.
Therefore there was an acquittal for these acts.
There is much to be said for the fact that it was as the two witnesses described it, said the court spokesman.
However, according to the expert opinion, it cannot be proven that the event really happened that way.
One of the women had reported dreams, another one of memories in the course of a therapeutic approach.
When the attacks occurred, the group was sponsored by the Kästorf Diaconal Homes.
In 2007 the employment relationship with the couple was terminated and they looked for a new provider.
According to Diakonie, there was never any evidence of sexual abuse.
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jpz / dpa / AFP
