In the trial of the attempted robbery of the world's largest gold treasure from the Roman Empire, the defendant confessed to being involved in the act before the Trier district court.
"He confessed to grease," said defender Christoph Rühlmann at the start of the trial on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old was not in the museum himself: two other perpetrators had tried to steal the gold treasure with more than 2500 coins made of pure gold from the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier.
The confession is part of an agreement that shortened the proceedings between the prosecution and the defense after the indictment had been read out.
According to the presiding judge Petra Schmitz, the Dutchman should then receive a prison sentence of between two and a half and three and a half years.
Charges: attempted serious gang theft
The indictment accuses the man of attempted serious gang theft: at least two as yet unknown perpetrators are said to have entered the museum using scaffolding on the night of October 8, 2019.
Despite brute force, they did not succeed in opening the armored glass cube over the gold coins.
They escaped without prey because the alarm went on and the police came.
Another perpetrator is said to have stood outside and warned, according to the prosecution.
The coins weigh 18.5 kilograms. The gold treasure is the figurehead of the museum in Trier. Its value is estimated at ten million euros, as public prosecutor Volker Blindert said in the reading of the indictment.