New verdict in the Münster case: almost nine years in prison for child abuse

Pronouncement of judgment (symbol image)

Photo: Arne Dedert / picture alliance / dpa

Another judgment has been made in the so-called abuse complex in Münster.

The Neubrandenburg district court has sentenced a 36-year-old man to eight years and nine months imprisonment for serious child sexual abuse.

The youth protection chamber also reserved the right to decide later on preventive detention due to the offender's pronounced pedosexual inclination, as judge Daniela Lieschke said on Thursday.

The chamber considered it proven that the convict from Ueckermünde (Vorpommern-Greifswald district) had abused the nine-year-old stepson of a man from Münster several times.

To this end, the two men deliberately agreed in advance of the deeds.

Physical and mental destruction

Judge Lieschke explained that the stepfather and the convict got to know each other in relevant internet chats, met in Ueckermünde and filmed some of the crimes.

"You contributed to the boy being physically and mentally destroyed piece by piece," said Lieschke.

The convict was silent in court.

The chamber had been able to reconstruct the incidents thanks to the investigators, Internet chats and videos, it was said.

The abuse complex was uncovered in June 2020 after an investigation in a Münster garden gazebo.

Since then, the police have investigated around 50 suspects for serious sexual abuse of children, some of whom have now been sentenced to long prison terms in the first instance.

In addition to Lügde and Bergisch Gladbach, Münster is at the center of abuse scandals in North Rhine-Westphalia.

atb / dpa / AFP