Münster is – after Lügde and Bergisch Gladbach – the third major case of child abuse in NRW. Even the most seasoned officials reach the limits of what is humanly tolerable, the police say. One crime in particular shocked the investigators.
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Rainer Furth looks stunned and dismayed during the press conference in Münster. “When police presidents speak at press conferences, it’s mostly about delivering outstanding investigative success. I’m concerned about the suffering of the victims.” The 63-year-old was the police chief of Krefeld for twelve years and has been chief of the Münster police for five months. He wanted to “express horror at what my staff discovered in just three weeks. Even the most experienced detective came to the limits of what was humanly tolerable – and far beyond.” The police officers should have evaluated hundreds of terabytes, Furth says, of – and now he almost spits out his words – “this hideous filth”.
The sober legal language (“eleven arrests and seven arrest warrants for serious sexual abuse of children”) only “completely inadequately reflects the dimension of what really happened – in the middle of us, in our society,” says Furth.
The victims come from the immediate vicinity of the suspects
The Münster police have discovered an abuse case that spans several federal states. After Lügde and Bergisch-Gladbach, it is the third major case in one and a half years in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The garden suspect, the alleged crime scene, is said to have given the mother of the main suspect to her son, apparently knowing what was happening there.
(Photo: Ina Fassbender / AFP)
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So far, three boys aged five, ten and twelve have been identified as victims. You are now in the care of youth welfare offices. Eleven suspects were arrested, six men and one woman were remanded in custody.
The main suspect is 27-year-old IT technician Adrian V. from Münster. The woman is his 45-year-old mother Carina V., who worked as a kindergarten teacher in Münster. According to the public prosecutor’s office, there is no evidence of acts by the woman at her job. In addition, five other men between the ages of 30 and 43 from Staufenberg, Hanover, Schorfheide, Kassel and Cologne are in prison.
The victims come from the immediate vicinity of the suspects: the ten-year-old from Münster is the son of the 27-year-old’s partner, the twelve-year-old is the suspect’s nephew from Kassel and the five-year-old is the son of the suspect from Staufenberg.
The ten-year-old from Münster is said to have been driven by his stepfather to men in other cities and left to them for sexual abuse. “He was sold by the person who should protect him,” said the head of the investigative commission, Joachim Poll. The accused from Cologne was the only one of those arrested so far to admit that he had committed sexual violence on the boy from Münster.
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