Sex video paedophile in court

2010-01-04 22:00

Trier - A German man who made videos of himself sexually abusing young boys admitted to a court on Monday to 18 charges of grave sexual assault covering the period 2002 to 2009.

Federal police who found the videos on the internet asked German television channels to broadcast images of the faces of the man and boys last year as part of a nationwide dragnet to identify him.

He turned himself in to police at the same time as the mother of two twin boys told police that the images showed her sons. The court was told that he began molesting the twins in 2005 when they were 7.

Prosecutors said on the opening day of the trial, which is expected to last into next month, that he met all his five victims through his volunteer work as a gymnastics coach or in a volunteer fire brigade in villages near the country town of Mayen.

"I just can't explain why I did it," said the accused, 38, who has been identified in newspapers with the pseudonym "Christoph G". The first incident, with a teenager, had happened when he was drunk, he said, claiming he had never planned the acts.

The victims were aged 6 to 15 at the time. He molested the twins twice a month for an 18-month period, ending when he was reported to the police. The twins first said they had been assaulted, then withdrew the allegation and the case in 2006 ended with only a court order not to meet the boys again, though the defendant did.

Presiding judge Albrecht Keimburg said it was a tragedy that police had not believed the boys and had not investigated the case more energetically. The defendant said, "I'm really very sorry about the whole thing."

Lawyers at the trial said he is likely to face a long prison term if convicted.

- SAPA