"Loverboy" trial: defendants announce statements

In a trial of the so-called loverboy scam at the Düsseldorf district court, the two defendants have announced statements about their defense lawyers.

The 33 and 25-year-old brothers are accused, among other things, of forcing a then 18-year-old from Regensburg into prostitution.

Düsseldorf / Regensburg - According to the indictment, the 33-year-old is said to have lured the Instagram acquaintance from Bavaria to Düsseldorf out of alleged love and forced them to prostitution in Germany and to group sex with friends and acquaintances in Lebanon.

His brother is said to have helped.

Numerous other allegations are negotiated, including drug possession, assault and attempted manslaughter by the elderly.

Reading the charges took more than an hour on Tuesday.

also read

Energy project fraud litigation

Five former employees of Göttingen EEV AG are said to have insufficiently informed investors about the risks involved in financing a wind farm and a biomass power plant.

A court has been hearing the case since Tuesday - the start of a long process.

Energy project fraud litigation

Blackmail suspected: Two men in the dock

Because they blackmailed a man they knew and allegedly stole more than 15,000 euros, two 31- and 33-year-olds are standing in front of the Berlin district court.

The defendants are said to have asked the victim to pay under pseudonyms via a messenger service in 13 cases.

They threatened with reprisals.

They are also said to have moved the man to participate in a bank robbery.

Blackmail suspected: Two men in the dock

Trial: The accused is said to have murdered a man in a high-rise building

A dead person lies undiscovered in his Mönchengladbach apartment for days.

When he is found, it turns out: He was killed.

Now the alleged murderer is on trial.

Trial: The accused is said to have murdered a man in a high-rise building

It is the second start of the process. The first was canceled in September after more than 80 days of negotiations due to illness-related interruptions - including corona cases. A further 27 negotiation days are scheduled for the process until the end of February. The first witnesses are to be heard on Wednesday. On the sidelines of the trial, the 33-year-old's defender said that the allegation of forced prostitution was wrong.

Investigators refer to it as the “loverboy method” when women are pretended to be great love by men - in order to bring them into a relationship of dependency.

In this situation, the women are then sent to the line by their supposed lovers.

"As long as the emotional dependency persists, the victims are usually not aware that there is a criminal offense of forced prostitution," said the State Criminal Police Office in North Rhine-Westphalia.

dpa