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Michael Esser, Head of the Special Organizational Organization (BAO) "Mountain" of the North Rhine-Westphalia Police at the press conference in Cologne: "Suspects from all walks of life"
Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa
More than two years after the abuse network in Bergisch Gladbach became known, the investigators presented their results.
As the special structural organization (BAO) "Berg" announced at a press conference in Cologne, 439 suspects have so far been identified, 103 of them come from North Rhine-Westphalia.
65 children were freed from "active abuse situations," it said.
27 suspects were arrested.
Courts imposed prison sentences in 13 cases, a total of more than 80 years.
Hundreds of cases have been handed over to other public prosecutors.
The first indications of the abuse series were received by the police at the end of October 2019, said Cologne Police President Uwe Jacob.
Initially, 30 investigators were deployed, but at times up to 350 officers worked with them.
Most of the suspects came from close family backgrounds
In most cases, according to the investigators, the accused came from close family members.
The abuse victims were between the ages of under one year and 17 years.
The youngest rape victim was three months old at the time of the crime.
The suspects come from "all walks of life," said investigation team leader Michael Esser.
Among them are "high earners and highly educated people" as well as "simple people".
For the investigators, the situations were sometimes extremely stressful, said head of operations Esser.
They had "seen enormous suffering" and experienced difficult situations, for example when children cried after being separated from the abusers.
"Even the most experienced investigators were shocked by the severity of the abuse," said Esser.
Police chief does not believe in a deterrent effect
Police chief Jacob drew a pessimistic conclusion: "I do not think that we have achieved a significant deterrent with the BAO› Berg ‹." Child sexual abuse continues.
The BAO "Berg" will be dissolved, but such acts will continue to be fought "vehemently".
The Bergisch Gladbach complex is, along with Münster and Lügde, one of the major cases of abuse that investigators in North Rhine-Westphalia discovered.
In the case of the Bergisch Gladbach complex, it is about a network of perpetrators who abused children and exchanged child pornographic material in chats.
Jörg L., who is considered a key figure, was sentenced to twelve years in prison in October 2020.
fek / AFP / dpa
