The Paderborn district court has acquitted a victim of Lügde's abuse series, who himself has been accused of sexual abuse of children. Although the adolescent had confessed the alleged abusive acts to him comprehensively, a court spokesman said. However, the board was unable to ascertain the responsibility required by law to convict an adolescent.
In the proceedings, the prosecutor had accused the 16-year-old defendant at the beginning of the trial of abusing three children. According to the Juvenile Court Act (JGG), a juvenile can only be convicted if his mental development allows it. The condition is that he sees the wrong of his actions and acts accordingly.
"Victims are relatively common perpetrators"
According to the court spokesman, given the special circumstances, the board remained in doubt that the accused was responsible for the specifically alleged acts of sexual abuse of children. The court expressly emphasized that this was a decision which concerned a "particular individual case" and could not be easily transferred to other circumstances.
The psychologist Manuela Dudeck has looked after a study on sex offenders, who themselves were victims of sexual violence as children. "Victims are relatively common culprits," Dudeck said about the long-term consequences of sexual violence in an interview with the SPIEGEL.
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In the Lügde case, Andreas V. and Mario S. were sentenced in September by the district court of Detmold to thirteen or twelve years in prison. The court ordered preventive detention against the two men. On a campsite in Lügde (North Rhine-Westphalia), they had sexually abused a total of 32 children for years.
Note: The defendant was still 16 at the beginning of the trial, but 17 at the verdict. We have corrected the age.