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Lügde: crime scene campsite (archive photo)
Photo: Guido Kirchner / picture alliance / dpa
In the investigation committee of the Düsseldorf state parliament into the case of abuse at the campsite in Lügde, MPs raise serious allegations against the youth welfare office in Höxter, according to SPIEGEL information.
A girl was cared for there who was seriously sexually abused by one of the main perpetrators, Mario S.
Andreas Bialas, chairman of the SPD in the committee, speaks of the "suspected file manipulation".
"Apparently files were deliberately changed," says committee chairman Martin Börschel (SPD), "the question is: why and on whose request?"
On Wednesday, an employee of the youth welfare office in the state parliament admitted that she only made a note when the scandal was already public and the two main perpetrators were in custody.
It was about why the socio-educational family help for the girl and her mother had been discontinued a year and a half earlier, although there had already been a number of indications of abuse.
The girl was referred to a psychotherapeutic outpatient clinic.
"A team leader then explained to us that it was normal to go through the files again in such a case and add to them," says Bialas.
"If unjustified changes were actually made, that would also be a case for the investigating authorities."
Processes in Höxter
In the Lügde abuse complex, the public prosecutor's office had also investigated employees of the youth welfare offices in Hameln-Pyrmont and Lippe, who were responsible for the foster daughter of the convicted long-term camper Andreas V., but discontinued the proceedings.
"We will now have to devote ourselves to the processes in Höxter," said Börschel.
Also in connection with the massive abuse of children in Lügde, Lower Saxony's police chief Axel Brockmann admitted omissions by the authorities on Friday.
Accordingly, the police in Northeim received information about possible perpetrators in spring 2019, but did not investigate them.
He was arrested a year later.
"The police should have informed the public prosecutor," Brockmann told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.
According to the report, the Interior Ministry has already examined the case and admitted errors.
Expert group established
The investigation in Northeim was about two men who were connected to the main perpetrator of the abuse series on the campsite in Lügde (North Rhine-Westphalia), wrote the newspaper.
One of the men, a 49-year-old from the Northeim district, was arrested in March 2020.
Criminal proceedings are pending against him for serious sexual abuse of children and young people.
The second man is at large.
In autumn 2019, the Detmold district court sentenced two men to long prison terms and subsequent preventive detention in the Lügde abuse case.
They had sexually abused 32 children on the campsite on the border with Lower Saxony for years.
According to Police President Brockmann, the Ministry of the Interior set up a group of experts after the 49-year-old was arrested to investigate possible omissions by the police in Northeim and the responsible police department in Göttingen.
The communication between Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia was "not clear," he told the newspaper.
Under criminal law there are no accusations, possible consequences under service law are being examined by the police department.
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agr / le / dpa
