He really liked the 45-year-old babysitter. But his gut feeling told him: The man is not kosher. This is how the testimony of a 49-year-old on Tuesday in the process of the so-called “Wermelskirchen abuse complex” before the Cologne district court can be summarized. About eight years ago, the accused (45) looked after the witness’s son, who was not even a year old at the time. But even this time there is said to have been a sexual assault, which the accused is said to have documented on film.
The youngest victim is said to have been only four weeks old
In the trial before the 2nd Major Criminal Court, the 45-year-old is accused of more than 120, sometimes extremely massive, acts of sexual violence against 13 children between 2005 and 2019. The crimes were filmed by the man who worked as a babysitter in his spare time and thus gained the trust of parents in order to then abuse their children. According to the indictment by the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, the youngest victim is said to have been a four-week-old girl. The defendant admitted his crimes in court.
“I also asked him: why are you doing this?” the witness described his first encounter with the accused. The defendant offered his services for ten to twelve euros an hour. And that with a journey of around 20 kilometers: “The fuel doesn’t even pay off there,” said the 49-year-old.
The defendant stated that he was an IT technician, made good money and that he only did babysitting for fun. “But that wasn’t conclusive to me,” the witness continued. Nevertheless, there was a collaboration in which the accused paid attention for about two to three hours. Nevertheless, this “gut feeling” was: “When you think of a babysitter, you don’t think of a man in his mid-30s,” said the witness. That’s why he and his wife decided after the first appointment not to use the 45-year-old’s services anymore.
The defendant addressed him, with the witness’s permission, and apologized for having “betrayed his trust”. The 45-year-old said that he had committed “terrible acts” and that “cannot be made good anymore”. The witness replied that he “would not forgive him”. And further: “One is human and not animal, I tell you.” What the accused did was “inhuman”. The 49-year-old refused compensation. The process continues.
