A 45-year-old German man who had offered online childcare services went on trial in the western city of Cologne on Tuesday on charges of nearly 100 counts of child sexual abuse.
Prosecutors told the Cologne regional court that the man documented the abuse of babies, children and adolescents and shared videos and images of “unimaginable brutality” with dozens of people, German news agency dpa reported.
Investigators who discovered a wealth of incriminating data last year at the married man’s home in the city of Wermelskirchen said at the time that they had never before “encountered such a level of inhumane brutality and callous disregard for the suffering of children.” little ones”.
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Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 15 years in prison followed by continued security confinement if the man, whose name was withheld for privacy reasons, is convicted.
In a separate case on Tuesday, a Frankfurt court convicted four men for their involvement in an online platform known as “Boystown,” which was used to spread images of child sexual abuse.
The defendant at the Wermelskirchen abuse complex holds a folder in front of his face in a courtroom in Cologne, Germany, on December 6, 2022.
(Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)
A 49-year-old man and a 42-year-old man were sentenced to 12 and 10 years in prison, respectively. The court also ordered that they be detained after the end of their term, Frankfurt prosecutors said.
A 60-year-old German man who was arrested sitting at his computer in Paraguay has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the operation of the darknet site. A 66-year-old man from Hamburg, considered a particularly active user, received a seven-year sentence, authorities said.
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The verdicts can be appealed.
The Boystown site was a major international platform for child sexual abuse images with more than 400,000 members before it was taken down last year.
Authorities are working to identify more users of the site and prosecute them.
