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District Court Münster (symbol photo)
Photo: Roland Weihrauch / dpa
In another trial in the abuse complex in Münster, the district court sentenced a defendant to imprisonment.
According to the verdict, the 38-year-old man from Wuppertal is to be imprisoned for five years, as a court spokesman said on Thursday.
He was found guilty of serious sexual abuse.
The court found the acts of abuse alleged to be essentially proven.
He had therefore met in March 2019 in a forest near Dülmen with Adrian V, who was considered the main culprit in the complex, in order to severely sexually abuse his then nine-year-old foster son.
In addition, numerous pictures showing sexual violence against children were found on the man.
During the search of the accused's apartment, the investigators secured various data carriers with at least 127 child pornographic image files.
Defendant only admitted possession of the pictures
At the beginning, the defendant only admitted possession and sending of the abuse pictures, but the serious acts of abuse did not occur in the forest.
"He confirmed that there was a meeting with Adrian V. and the child," said the spokesman.
However, the defendant described the further course of the meeting differently.
Corresponding chat protocols had however served the judges as evidence in the process.
The public prosecutor's office had demanded a six-year prison sentence, the defense considered a suspended sentence to be appropriate.
In the main trial, Adrian V. was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment and subsequent preventive detention at the beginning of July 2021.
He had raped his now eleven-year-old foster son again and again and left it to other men for serious abuse.
Both judgments - against the main culprit and against the man from Wuppertal - are not yet final.
Alongside Lügde and Bergisch Gladbach, Münster is one of three major abuse cases in North Rhine-Westphalia in recent years.
The case came to light in June 2020 after investigations into a gazebo.
In the course of this, there had been arrests in several federal states and abroad.
Several men and one woman have already been sentenced to imprisonment in the offense.
Other suspects have been identified and some are in custody.
kfr / dpa / AFP