For years, a man abused several children in his apartment in Ulm. He partially admits the deeds in court. Evidence is difficult after such a long time.
Ulm – Because he is said to have sexually abused his half-sister and four other girls in more than 100 cases, a 45-year-old man from Ulm has been sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence.
The judges at the Ulm Regional Court found the man guilty on Friday in 131 cases of sexual abuse of children and in two cases of serious sexual abuse. The defendant also has to pay a fine of 2,400 euros.
The public prosecutor had accused the man of having committed sexual abuse of children in more than 400 cases between 1996 and 2005. In the remaining cases, however, the court acquitted the man. When giving the reasons for the verdict, the court emphasized that the offenses had taken place a long time ago and that a large number of offenses had been prosecuted. The exact number remains unclear and, in case of doubt, the defendant was decided.
The court therefore found the man guilty only for the acts of which several of the injured adults today had reported unanimously or of which they remembered certain details even after so many years. In other cases, it was not possible to provide evidence of the crime, it was said to justify the judgment.
The man had partially admitted the deeds in court. The court was convinced that he had repeatedly sexually abused his half-sister and four other girls from his neighborhood in several of the apartments that he lived in in Ulm during the period of the crime. The girls were between 6 and 13 years old at the time of the offenses, and the defendant was 20 to 29 years old.
In terms of the sentence, the court appreciated the defendant’s confession, even if it was “vague and without details”. He also benefited from having apologized to the injured party. The judges also took into account that he had completed therapy and was in a committed relationship with his wife.
Since the proceedings against the man had been delayed by around two years due to detention proceedings to be negotiated and other major proceedings at the Ulm Regional Court, two months of the man’s prison sentence are already considered to have been served should he violate his probation conditions. The verdict is not yet legally binding. dpa
