The regional court in Wuppertal has sentenced two more young people after the gang rape of a 13-year-old in Velbert. A 15-year-old received two years and nine months juvenile penalty for rape, as a court spokesman said. The juvenile justice proceedings were held in camera.
The defender of the now convicted rapist said his client realized what he had done terrible and regret the action. The court imposed fifteen months' probation on a rape aiding a fellow defendant of the same age. Both had dropped off after the deed in their homeland to Bulgaria and had been arrested there. In the process, they had confessed and thus saved the victim a testimony.
Six young people aged 14 to 17 had already sentenced the court last October. The highest individual sentence was four years and nine months in prison.
The crime had triggered nationwide horror in April last year. A total of eight young people from Bulgaria participated in the crime. The young people had the girl after a visit paid for outdoor swimming, led into a forest and there passed the 13-year-olds. The group had filmed the sex crime with cell phone cameras, until finally a walker stepped in.
The victim had then tracked down his tormentors himself: The 13-year-old had searched on Facebook for one of the young people, who already seemed familiar to her during the act. Finally she had recognized him in a photo.
The photo was distributed to all patrolmen in Velbert. A patrol recognized the suspect and arrested him. On his mobile phone, the investigators found a film clip of the crime. The recording led to the other suspects.
Despite the burden of proof, some had claimed in the first trial that the girl had volunteered. Four youths were convicted of the first sentence and sentenced to prison terms. Now the Federal Court has to decide.