Large-scale child pornography raid in Bavaria: 55 suspects - a third of the perpetrators under 30

Created: 01/27/2022, 07:04

By: Theresa Kuchler

During a major raid on Tuesday, 50 apartments across Bavaria were searched.

© David Indianlied/Imago

On Tuesday there was a Bavaria-wide raid on child pornography.

The responsible ministers emphasize: No perpetrator should feel safe in Bavaria.

Munich

- 238 police officers simultaneously searched 50 households in all seven administrative districts on Tuesday (January 25). They targeted 55 suspects between the ages of 18 and 73, from all social and professional backgrounds. More than a third of them are younger than 30, including cases from the districts of Traunstein, Rosenheim, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen and Mühldorf. The suspicion: Possession and distribution of child pornographic content.

"The fight against sexual abuse and child pornography has priority in Bavaria," emphasizes the Bavarian Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU *).

"After all, behind every video, every picture is the immeasurable suffering of a child." The Free State wants to hold the perpetrators accountable.

The raid was dubbed Operation Wake-up Call 2022.

It was coordinated by the State Criminal Police Office and the Center for Combating Child Pornography and Sexual Abuse on the Internet (ZKI).

Police raid: The extent of the violence is staggering - videos show extreme abuse

The extent of the files seized is particularly shocking.

A number of suspects are suspected of having obtained videos from a file-sharing provider that show the most severe and extremely violent abuse of infants.

"Even experienced investigators cannot easily put up with such a level of cruelty," says senior prosecutor Thomas Goger.

Anyone viewing the material is warned in advance of the brutality of the content.

"But you can never get that out of your head."

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For years it has been apparent that the number of cases in this area of ​​crime is increasing.

"The degree of spread is frightening," says Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU).

In the police crime statistics, the number of crimes related to child pornography in 2021 almost doubled compared to the previous year, according to initial evaluations.

This is also noticeable in the judiciary: “In 2021 alone, 3236 procedures were recorded at the ZKI,” says Eisenreich.

Child pornography offenses have been increasing for years - no trend reversal in sight

Goger assumes that there will be no trend reversal this year either. After all, as of yesterday, there have already been 369 cases against child pornography. "And January isn't even over yet." The common goal of the ZKI, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior is therefore to further increase the pressure to prosecute the perpetrators. "For us it is clear: Nobody who commits such acts should feel safe in Bavaria*."

In 14 cases, the investigators only found the perpetrators via the IP address.

The possibilities of investigation stand and fall with whether these IP addresses can still be assigned to specific persons.

However, this is usually not possible due to the lack of traffic data storage.

Eisenreich and Herrmann are therefore in favor of the traffic data being able to be stored at least temporarily in the case of serious crimes such as child pornography.

"Otherwise the investigations will end before they even begin."