German authorities announced on Monday that they are investigating 30,000 people suspected of child molestation on the internet. It is one of the largest such cases in the country which is debating tougher sentences for perpetrators.
“I did not expect, even from afar, the extent of child abuse on the net,” was alarmed at a press conference by Peter Biesenbach, Minister of Justice for the Rhineland region of North-Westphalia (West of the country), where the scandal broke out last fall.
Investigators have found ‘deeply disturbing’ evidence, he said, adding that ‘child abuse online is more widespread than we previously thought’.
These investigations into cases of mistreatment, abuse and mischief of children filmed for years began in October with the arrest of a 42-year-old man in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne.
The anti-cybercrime force in North Rhine-Westphalia ‘is investigating 30,000 suspects still unknown in the pedophilia case of Bergisch Gladbach’, according to Mr Biesenbach.
Over 70 suspects have already been identified across Germany, several of whom are currently on trial. Last May, a 27-year-old soldier was sentenced to ten years in prison and placed in a mental hospital.
‘The inhibition thresholds drop’
So far, at least 40 victims have been identified in what appears to be one of the biggest pedophilia scandals in Germany.
The investigators were alerted by Canadian police officers who discovered child pornography content from this region.
The 42-year-old man was then arrested, whose trial is scheduled to start in August. Investigators had found immense quantities of child pornography in his apartment.
In the process, they also uncovered the existence of various discussion groups with several thousand participants. These recipients of ‘cats’ are now in the crosshairs of German justice.
“We want to get the perpetrators who abuse children and those who support them out of the anonymity of the internet,” said Biesenbach.
‘The authors who communicate in the forums consider child abuse to be’ normal ‘and find a large number of like-minded people. The inhibition thresholds drop. And that is what characterizes this situation from a criminal point of view, ” he warned.
‘If we are to actively combat child abuse on the internet, we must also talk about the legal regulations on data storage. One cannot work without the other, ‘he added.
Lifting of anonymity
After several cases of pedophilia in recent years that have shocked the country, the authorities are now more intransigent.
In early June, 11 people were arrested on suspicion of having sexually abused children and of having filmed their acts, after capturing videos and photos in the cellar of a 27-year-old man in Münster, also in the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In a previous scandal in Lügde, in the same region, several men were arrested on suspicion of having abused children for years hundreds of times at a campsite.
The fact that ‘more and more cases of abuse are being revealed’ in North Rhine-Westphalia has a lot to do with the fact that investigative capacities in the region have been increased, said Michael Maatz, vice-president of a police union. “We must therefore expect that in the coming months, other networks of pedophiles will be exposed,” he warned.
The new revelations at the beginning of June on the disappearance 13 years ago in Portugal of the small Briton Maddie McCann, and the identification of a new suspect, a German currently in detention in Kiel (North), propelled into the public debate the need for increased severity against perpetrators of pedophile crimes.
From now on, several German political leaders go so far as to demand the lifting of anonymity for anyone distributing or receiving only child pornography material.
/ ATS
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