The trial of a 45-year-old man who is accused of having sexually abused his half-sister and four friends of the girl began on Monday at the Ulm Regional Court - in more than 400 cases.

The crimes are said to have taken place between 1996 and 2005 in two of the locomotive driver's apartments in Ulm and were often similar: According to the indictment, the girls, who were between six and 13 years old during this period, regularly came to stay with the accused and received them from him then alcohol, were bathed and creamed.

Among other things, when applying lotion, the man, who was then in his early 20s, is said to have tried in some cases to penetrate the children's vaginas.

Sebastian Eder

Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET.

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In individual cases, according to the statements of the women who testify as witnesses in the trial, he is said to have succeeded. The defendant is also said to have induced the children to stretch naked in his living room and to stimulate each other sexually. In total, he is charged with 403 cases of child sexual abuse, including 20 serious cases.

In the courtroom, the defendant made a statement on Monday - and at least essentially denied the serious allegations.

"First and foremost, I'm sorry, that was stupid of me back then," he said at first.

What exactly he was sorry for wasn't really clear afterwards - the man replied to most of the presiding judge's questions that he couldn't remember.

He no longer knows why he bathed the girls, put cream on them and sometimes only wore underpants - instead, according to his testimony, the defendant remembered very precisely what he had not done: “I never penetrated any girl . ”He also did not try that.

Photos of child abuse and possible other victims

The fact that his half-sister and a friend stayed overnight with him started when she was in first or second grade. Why? "I can't tell you that anymore," replied the defendant to a question from the judge. That he gave the children alcohol was "a mistake". At that time he had few opportunities with women, was very shy and was a lot alone. The two girls who visited him regularly were later replaced by two other, much younger girls, according to the indictment. The defendant explained that he had moved and the younger girls were direct neighbors. "We all got on really well, it was coming and going." He admitted that one of the children with him had once drunk so much alcohol thatthat it had to vomit, then he showered it off but did not try to penetrate it - that was what the witness had testified to the police.

The defendant replied contradicting questions about his motive. On the one hand, he admitted that he was "already interested in little girls back then". "For clothed or for unclothed?" Asked the judge. "As well as. But I just wanted to look. ”That didn't stimulate him sexually. The girls who stayed with him were also not part of his sexual fantasies. After visiting them, he had occasionally satisfied himself, “but without any thoughts” about the children. He rejected allegations made by the witnesses that they had watched horror and porn films on his premises and that they should respond to requests such as "Kiss the pussy" - he could not remember either this formulation or a specific film title.

The Ulm lawyer Cecile Behrendt represents four of the five witnesses who joined the proceedings as joint plaintiffs. "One of the women had carried this around with her all her life and couldn't cope with it anymore, that's why she finally came to me," she said before the trial. It turned out that other women were also affected, and in 2018 they filed a complaint. The police then searched the defendant's home, found photos of child abuse and, in the course of the investigation, evidence of other possible victims. A girl who had been photographed naked in the defendant's apartment clearly after the alleged period of the crime, rejected the investigators' request that she too had been abused. She confirmed, however,Having bathed and changed in the apartment as a child. According to her statement, she could not remember the fact that she was apparently photographed.

The defendant said on Monday that his defense lawyer asked him to seek psychological help after the police had been to him. He also went to family counseling with his wife, whom he married that summer. The woman brought a now eight-year-old daughter into the relationship. The witnesses were supposed to testify on Monday afternoon and Friday - but in camera.