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Mother in court: seven years and nine months in prison
Photo: Guido Kirchner / dpa
In the abuse complex in Münster, the mother of a victim was sentenced to a prison term of seven years and nine months for aiding and abetting by omission.
The judges at the Münster Regional Court were convinced that the mother knew that her partner at the time had sexually abused her son severely.
The now 32-year-old did not prevent the rapes, it said in the verdict in Münster.
With the prison sentence, the court is under the demand of the public prosecutor, who had demanded a ten-year prison sentence.
One of the defense attorneys had spoken out in favor of a six-year prison term, another had given no sentence.
Mother expressed regret
The woman had surprisingly made a partial confession before the pleading.
On the penultimate day of the trial, she admitted that she had considered the abuse possible since October 2019.
But she was not able to end the relationship.
The mother expressed her regret in a final statement.
At the start of the trial in early August, she had still denied the allegations.
Most of the proceedings - in order to protect the now twelve-year-old victim - took place in camera.
The stepfather, an IT technician, is seen as the mastermind in the abuse complex.
Several children were raped in a gazebo in Münster and other places in Germany.
The man was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment and subsequent preventive detention in the main trial.
Alongside Lügde and Bergisch Gladbach, Münster is one of three major cases of abuse in North Rhine-Westphalia in recent years.
It came to light in June 2020.
Several men and one woman have already been sentenced to imprisonment in the offense.
ptz / dpa
