There have been harrowing cases of child abuse over the years. Bergisch Gladbach, a city near Cologne, has inadvertently become a cipher.
Cologne – Traumatized families, shaken officials: The Cologne investigators in the Bergisch Gladbach abuse complex have freed a total of 65 children from the violence of perpetrators in recent years.
That emerges from a balance sheet of the police investigation group “Berg”, which was published on Wednesday. The youngest child who was freed from an abuse situation was only three months old. His employees had seen, heard and documented “enormous suffering”, said investigation group leader Michael Esser.
The Cologne Police’s “Special Structural Organization Mountain” (BAO Berg) was set up in autumn 2019. In the house of a family man in Bergisch Gladbach, investigators found huge amounts of child pornographic data. As a result, they came across an extensive network of suspects who exchanged information on child abuse online. After many searches, arrests and convictions, the investigation team is now being disbanded.
Chasms behind every case
The conclusion: 439 suspects could be identified. There were 27 arrests nationwide, 13 of them in North Rhine-Westphalia. As far as convictions are concerned, there are no nationwide figures, but the data from NRW indicate the severity of the offenses: In several proceedings conducted by the so-called central and contact point Cybercrime NRW, a total of more than 80 years imprisonment were imposed. The man from Bergisch Gladbach, who abused his own daughter, was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment and detention in preventive detention in 2020.
What the numbers can hardly illustrate at the same time: The abysses that lie behind each individual case. Cologne police chief Uwe Jacob said he had seen a lot of suffering in his career. “But what we have uncovered here goes beyond all standards.” The considerable balance of the investigation is no reason to celebrate. “The suffering we have uncovered here is far too great for that.”
Suspects from all walks of life
The situations were sometimes “very surreal”, described the investigation group leader Esser – for example when the children cried after separating from the abusers. For example, during a hearing, a girl desperately clung to a stuffed animal that her uncle had given her. “The tragedy in this statement took us all with it, because this uncle was our suspect who had done her indescribable suffering,” said a report from the head of operations.
You can’t talk about child abuse being a crime on the fringes of society, said Esser. “We have suspects from all walks of life,” he said. Among them are people who, viewed from the outside, have led a completely normal life: “They went about their work quite normally.” In most cases, the wives had no premonition of what was happening to their children.
The remaining, resilient traces of the investigation team are now to be followed up on other levels – in these cases, however, the Cologne police no longer expects the detection of acute acts of abuse.
Identification is often very difficult
The amount of data on which the Cologne investigators are now sitting is nonetheless huge. By evaluating the data carriers found, they said they found traces that could theoretically lead to more than 30,000 suspects. However, since they hide behind pseudonyms in forums, group chats and in messenger services, identification is extremely difficult. The fact that 30,000 charges would ultimately be brought was considered utopian because of the technical and legal conditions.
In total, the BAO Berg secured around 4700 data carriers. “To put it bluntly: The cellars here in the police headquarters are full of secured hard drives, computers and cell phones,” said Police President Jacob. They all still need to be evaluated. dpa
