Determined only at home on the Darknet or loaded and viewed child pornographic files?
A police officer from the northern district has to answer in the district court in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The trial has been suspended and will continue on October 18.
The accused has a strange explanation for what happened.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
- The charge is tough: A young police officer is said to have obtained and owned child and youth pornographic files and videos in May and June 2020. The victim denies the allegations and claims that his late father downloaded and viewed the data. Because a special exonerating witness could not be found in a hurry, Judge Dr. Benjamin Lenhart the main hearing at the district court in Garmisch-Partenkirchen after a good four hours. The sequel is scheduled for October 18th.
The defendant, an innocent man who lives in his parents' house in the northern district, testified willingly and in detail.
He is currently suspended from the police service because of the ongoing criminal proceedings.
"The charge is incompatible with my personality," he emphasized.
He would never voluntarily watch videos torturing children.
For the civil servant who works in a department in the Weilheim-Schongau district, nothing less is at stake than his job.
This was also made clear by his defender Harald Baumgärtl.
“He says he wasn't.
In the event of a final conviction, he is threatened with dismissal from the police force. "
Senior Public Prosecutor for Cybercrime in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
The prosecution was high-ranking in this case. Senior Public Prosecutor Stephan Schäl from the Bamberg Public Prosecutor's Office, the central office for cybercrime in Bavaria, came to Garmisch-Partenkirchen specifically. Johannes Pollach, the IT forensic scientist who sat next to Schäl, belongs to the same facility.
In front of her eyes, the policeman began to describe what had happened from his point of view. A few years ago he downloaded the Tor browser, which enables access to the Darknet, to his private computer. In this separate area of the Internet, the user is able to communicate anonymously and access blocked content. He was a "committed police officer," he emphasized. “The Darknet is a criminalist phenomenon, so I wanted to get an overview.” During his research, he had dealt with drugs and weapons, but found no evidence of child pornography. Nonetheless, he admitted that he had closed many pages unseen. Out of the blue he was then visited in his office at the beginning of June, after which the raid continued at home, with the father also being interrogated as a suspect.Computers, notebooks and cell phones were taken from father and son.
The son suspects his own father to be the perpetrator
Lenhart asked directly: “So you mean to say that your father looked at it?” The son did not hesitate: “I assume so.
He had unlimited time to use the computer for years. ”The judge paused.
He is surprised that the son conducts criminal research and allows the father to access the same computer.
The attorney general also had his doubts.
"I find it hard to believe that it was the father," said Schäl.
Dealing with browsers, Darknet and the CCleaner program presupposes a "high technical level".
"The father wasn't that fit, he wasn't a computer professional."
IT expert spends around 80 hours on the policeman's private computer
The expert spent around 80 hours on the computer. "In the visible state, no child or youth pornographic content could be found," the expert concluded. However, traces were destroyed on the computer with a lot of effort. He discovered links to child pornography and deleted video files. Based on the file names found, conclusions could be drawn about youth pornographic content, the computer scientist explained. Based on his research, a certain usage behavior can be read, repeating patterns had become established: the use of Tor-Browser, Darknet and VLC-Player, the unpacking of files. At the end of the session, CCleaner always removed files.
The investigation was transferred to an officer from the Rosenheim Criminal Police Office.
He reported that the defendant behaved cooperatively.
Lenhart wanted to know whether you can accidentally come across pages with child pornography on the Darknet.
"No.
You have to get hold of the files, ”said the investigator.
The officer found it conspicuous that all browser processes on the accused's computer had been deleted.
"Very unusual."
Policeman's working hours fit into the picture with Internet times
In the meantime, the chief public prosecutor had received the defendant's working hours from May and June 2020 by email from the Upper Bavaria police headquarters. Schäl compared the recording account with the computer's usage times. If the accused was free, the computer was often in use, he argued. “When he got home from work, it started half an hour later,” Schäl stated. "I don't know if you can blame that on your father."
Then it came to a specific day in May 2020. The accused vehemently denied having viewed child pornography.
It was not possible because at the time he was cycling to work with a colleague.
His defense lawyer insisted on interviewing this witness.
Because it was a matter of professional sport, the former head of the police inspection should testify as a witness in the continuation of the main hearing in addition to the ex-colleague.
