Experts of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) assume that the abuse case in Bergisch Gladbach is greater than the case in Lügde. "If so many chat participants and groups are there, one can assume that the data obtained is greater than in the case of Lügde.This is an immense amount of data," said LKA Director Frank Hoever "Rheinische Post" on Monday.
Sven Schneider, head of the Cybercrime Competence Center at the LKA, added: "I also do not think that the Bergisch Gladbach case was an isolated case, because the perpetrators have to exchange views to find visual material and find like-minded people primarily through forums on the Internet and via messenger services. "
Police want better access to criminal circles
Hoever and Schneider made a strong commitment to be able to use future computer-generated fake images of children to be included in the chats of the perpetrators. "I would like that very much, that would be the ticket to a crime scene, and it would be enormously important for the investigation to investigate, and if we could bring material into the chats, more cases would come to light," Hoever said.
The abuse series of Lügde in the district of Lippe became known at the end of January. On a campsite in the East Westphalian city, there had been a thousand child abuse. Most of the affected children were between three and 14 years old at the time of the crime.
About two weeks ago, the Bergisch Gladbach case revealed some major errors of the investigators: failures of the judiciary meant that a pedophile father continued to have the opportunity for months to abuse and offer abuse to children. The failings were the Attorney General Dusseldorf in a review "unmistakably" found.
Police speak of "huge network"
The dimension of the investigation is getting bigger. At the beginning of November, a ninth arrest in Rhineland-Palatinate became known. The man had come into custody, said a spokesman for the NRW Justice Department. He did not name further details. There are currently nine men in custody, according to the spokesman, seven in NRW, one in Hesse and one in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The investigators speak of a "huge pedophile child porn network with chat groups up to 1800 participants". Unlike the years of child abuse on a campsite in Lügde, the investigation around Bergisch Gladbach "many perpetrators from all corners of Germany" have been revealed.
Also read this interview with a child pornography investigator.
