Child abuse – Child abuse via video chat – Ex-priest in court – Panorama

Fulda (dpa/lhe) – The former pastor quickly takes note of the reading of the charges without moving. He seems mostly absent. The man looks at the table and only once at his defense attorney while the public prosecutor’s office reports on the child and youth pornographic videos that the man is said to have shown to other minors on the Internet.

In total, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses the 43-year-old of 71 cases that he is said to have started in the Fulda district. According to the indictment, from September 2021 to July 2022, he is said to have specifically contacted children and young people via an online video chat platform and played them videos of child sexual abuse.

According to the report, he had contact with both underage boys and girls. In the videos, children danced naked with each other, with young people or with adults, or performed sexual acts on themselves and others, it was said.

Long prison sentence possible

He is said to have then often asked if they wanted to see more or take off their clothes. He also carried out sexual acts on himself and encouraged children and young people to touch each other. In nine cases, sexual abuse of children without physical contact is actually assumed.

The former pastor saved the video chats with the victims on his laptop. In total, the man had hundreds of photos and videos. The court could sentence the man to a maximum of 15 years in prison for all of the crimes, said Attorney General Benjamin Krause.

After the charges were read out, the defendant’s defense made an initial statement about his personal circumstances. The man had been active in the Catholic Church since childhood and had always seen faith as something positive. The 43-year-old had long toyed with the idea of ​​becoming a priest, but often struggled with celibacy. During two relationships – one during his time as a priest – he experienced “normal eroticism” and felt attracted to women. In the wake of the corona pandemic, he then experienced a higher workload and loneliness – he spent more time on the Internet.

Acts in the district of Fulda

At first he visited normal “porn sites,” explained the defense attorney. According to his own statements, the defendant then remembered a confession on the video chat platform he was using and tried it out. The “very young people there” fascinated him. “I should have done sports instead,” the man explained, according to the statement read out by his defense attorney. He now knew that his actions had caused suffering to children and young people.

According to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation against the defendants was initiated in May 2022 following a tip-off from the US organization “National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)”. There is suspicion that third parties made child pornography material available over the Internet. The man was suspended after the allegations were announced.

Further hearing days in October

Cases of sexual abuse of children and young people in the Catholic and Protestant churches are repeatedly made public. A study commissioned by the Catholic Church in 2018 found that between 1946 and 2014, at least 1,670 Catholic clergy are said to have abused 3,677 mostly male minors. In Hesse alone, according to the dioceses, there were probably more than 300 cases during this period alone.

The diocese of Fulda, for which the defendant worked as a priest, also made a statement before the trial began: “The diocese of Fulda has a great interest in ensuring that the allegations against the former priest are fully clarified and, in the event of a legally binding conviction, are punished accordingly.” “If there is a conviction, I will also join in with canon law proceedings.

The regional court has scheduled nine further dates for the proceedings up to October 29. The trial will continue on October 8. Because the content of the videos will also be viewed during the trial, the public will be excluded from future parts of the hearing, explained presiding judge Joachim Becker.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:240924-930-241907/1