Verdict in the Lügde process: "Perfidious system of bribery, extortion, threats and violence"

Anke Grudda finds it difficult to find words for what she had to see and hear during the eleven days of the hearing. "How should one call that?", Asks the presiding judge in room 165 of the district court Detmold. "Disgusting, monstrous, I think all names are not enough." The only thing that is certain, she says, is that the images of the attacks have burnt into the minds of all those involved. "And forever."

Shortly after 9 o'clock Grudda announces the verdict in Lügde's abusive case: the main defendant Andreas V. has been imprisoned for 13 years, his accomplice Mario S. for 12 years. For both Grudda ordered a subsequent preventive detention. The men lived at the "Eichwald" campsite in Lügde, most of their deeds happened in their caravans. Andreas V. and Mario S. were convicted in more than 400 cases of sexual abuse and serious sexual abuse of children.

"What you have done there"

It is the end of a process that had to find answers to the difficult question of which penalties are appropriate for a hundredfold abuse of girls and boys of kindergarten age. Grudda speaks for almost an hour, to the right of her sit the defendants. Andreas V., 56, jeans and gray hoodie, looks at the judge during the execution in the face, his elbow he has leaned on the table in front of him. Mario S., 34, black shirt and long goatee, looks down. Both show no emotion, even if they are addressed by Grudda: "They have demoted 32 children and adolescents to objects of their sexual desire," she says, "that's your fault, and you did not even realize what You have done there. " Repentance, says Grudda, was "never seen" among the men.

Bernd Thissen / DPA

Mario S. (l.) And Andreas V .: Long prison sentences after hundreds of abuse cases on campsite

The trial lasted a good two months and 33 witnesses were invited. It went quickly because the defendants had confessed most of the deeds on the first day of the trial. Grudda released the victims to testify or not. Some children appeared in court, confirming what they had already told the police. Others did not come, partly because psychologists had advised them against it. Most victims of Andreas V. and Mario S. are now in therapy. Some suffer from anxiety, some have injured themselves, there are people who can hardly sleep or only when the light is on.

No doubt. That's the phrase that Grudda uses most often. No doubt that the deeds have happened as described in the prosecution's indictment. Andreas V. applied a "perfidious system of bribery, extortion, threats and violence" to the campsite. He promised children ice cream for being photographed naked. He had beaten a girl when she wanted to stop satisfying him orally.

Court sees a high risk of relapse

There is no doubt, Grudda says, that the men should be placed in preventive detention because their risk of relapse is "very high" and even therapies would probably not change anything. Andreas V. and Mario S. will not be released even after the end of their prison sentences. And finally, no doubt, the judge says that those affected have a life-long struggle with the deeds.

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Abuse at the campsiteElegde - crime without example

A few of the victims hear Grudda's words. They have sat down in a room on the ground floor of the district court, where the verdict is transmitted live on a screen by video switching. The court had allowed those affected to hear the decision without having to sit in a room with the perpetrators. Around 15 people accepted the offer. Some have come with their relatives, others with carers of the aid organization White Ring.

After the verdict, the victim's lawyer Roman von Alvensleben stands in front of the courtroom. He represents a 10-year-old child who was abused by Andreas V. A "reasonable outcome" is what the lawyer says about the verdict. Preventive detention had been crucial because it took those affected a bit of the fear of someday have to meet the perpetrators again. Attorney Zeliha Evlice, representing a now 19-year-old woman, calls the verdict "acceptable." However, the trial also showed that "the law should also provide for life imprisonment for such acts against children."

Does the law need to change? Is the sentence sufficient for such offenses? Even after the trial, a lot of questions remain. Why did not Andreas V. and Mario S. fly so long? Why did not the police take the advice that was given seriously enough? Why were so many mistakes made in the investigation, why were proofs overlooked, why did others lose? And why did the youth welfare office Andreas V. entrust a foster daughter in 2017?

The police Bielefeld determined in connection with the case against 14 officials, there are police officers, youth workers and employees of the family help. In the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament in Duesseldorf meanwhile the investigation committee to the case Lügde has begun its work. The MEPs want to clarify where mistakes happened and why, also there it is about the work of the police, the youth welfare offices and politics. The members of the committee will have to dig through several thousand pages of files in the coming months.

The verdict against the perpetrators is spoken, the processing of the case is far from complete.

Also read: How Politics and Authorities overslept the fight against child abuse