As of: March 28, 2024, 12:00 p.m
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The case was heard at the Weilheim district court. © Wahl-Geiger
A court hearing does not always have to take long. If all the cards are face up on the table, things can happen quickly. In a child pornography case, the Weilheim jury court led by Judge Lars Baumann recently made short work of it.
Weilheim
- The defendant, a 34-year-old who now lives in northern Germany, confessed and fully admitted the allegations. The investigators found 44 criminally relevant files on his devices. The photos primarily show unclothed and provocatively posing girls under the age of 14.
Right at the beginning, the defense attorney informed the court that his client had started therapy on his own and had already attended between 20 and 30 hours of sessions. The 34-year-old has already made “great progress,” reported his lawyer. He added that his sexual preferences were increasingly developing “towards male normality”.
Quite piquant: The accused had worked as a teacher until recently. However, the court is not aware of any incidents. The defense attorney also gave his client credit for having kept himself under control in this regard.
Cooperate with the house search
As the police officer called as a witness explained, the man was discovered through a so-called NCMEC report. The ominous files were finally found during a house search in 2022. The defendant behaved cooperatively and disclosed all passwords and access data “of his own free will,” said the official.
This ended the taking of evidence, whereupon the public prosecutor took the floor, but was able to keep her plea brief. The accusation was confirmed, she explained. The 34-year-old has not yet appeared in criminal law. She also emphasized positively that he had behaved cooperatively towards the police. Nevertheless, the man surrounded himself with children at his workplace. After all, he pulled the ripcord himself and left the teaching profession without incident.
Defense attorney believed demands were excessive
The prosecutor noted that it must actually be clear to him that the images stored on his devices are associated with great suffering. She therefore considered a one-and-a-half year suspended sentence, a fine of 1,000 euros and continued therapy necessary. Those involved had already agreed on the latter during the taking of evidence.
The defense lawyer asked the court not to impose a fine due to his client's financial situation. In addition, he did not distribute the images and thus did not “fuel the market” any further. Although his client had not been guilty of anything in the real world, he had left his job on his own, the defense attorney emphasized. He therefore considered the prosecutor's demands to be excessive.
In the end, Judge Baumann announced a 14-month suspended sentence and waived a fine. However, the man should continue the therapy. Because the photos are primarily so-called “posing pictures,” which according to the judge are at the lower end of the criminal spectrum, the man got away with a black eye.