The district court of Cologne has the Catholic priest Hans-Bernhard Ue.

sentenced to a total of twelve years' imprisonment for more than a hundred cases of sexual abuse of eight children and one young person.

On Friday, the second major criminal chamber fell just short of the prosecutor's demand, which had called for 13 years in prison.

The 70-year-old clergyman turned out to be a "pedophile serial offender" who, from 1979 to 2019 and thus for more than 40 years, used his position as a priest, godfather or surrogate father to gain the trust of children and parents, the presiding judge said Christoph Kaufmann in the oral verdict, which lasted almost three hours.

Daniel Deckers

responsible for “The Present” in the political editorial team.

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Addressing the victim witnesses and other victims in the auditorium, some of whom only revealed themselves during the main hearing, Kaufmann said they deserve “all of our respect”.

Despite the immense psychological stress caused by the acts of abuse, the young women faced the main hearing to the best of their knowledge and belief and with "impressive honesty".

They are the “heroines of the process”.

The court awarded three of those affected compensation for pain and suffering totaling 50,000 euros.

The verdict is not yet final, as the priest can appeal within a week.

(File number 102 KLs 17/20)

The clergyman's defense attorney, Rüdiger Deckers, had previously requested that the claims for compensation for pain and suffering be dismissed.

Kaufmann not only rejected this request, but also accused Deckers in absentia of intimidating the family of a victim witness by telephone with a "perfidious warning" and of having "taunted" those affected with his defense tactics.

Kaufmann also mentioned that in his first statement, Deckers had asked for psychological reports on the victim witnesses and had put forward the “false memory” theory.

In fact, during the first 20 days of the main hearing, the priest, with the support of his attorney-at-law, repeatedly and "brazenly" lied to the court until his statements could be clearly refuted by the witnesses.

The chamber felt like "brothers in the fog," said Kaufmann, alluding to a secret dossier that the late Archbishop of Cologne Meisner ("didn't suspect, knew nothing") about pedo-criminals like Ue.

had created.

"Master of Manipulation"

The women, in turn, had not only described the perversity of the actions that Ue.

had done to them.

Kaufmann also spoke at length in the verdict about the sometimes devastating effects that the abuse has left on everyone - including the shame of not having revealed himself in time, which may have prevented further suffering.

The priest, who, among other things, had molested three nieces over the years, followed the verdict without any outward emotion – even when the judge accused him of authorship of two abortions and abuse of the confessional sacrament.

Two of the nieces then read short statements calling on victims of sexual violence to

Kaufmann also went into detail about how it could have happened that Ue.

had not become so conspicuous for more than four decades that the judiciary could put a stop to his activities.

The judge described the perpetrator as a "master manipulative" who deceived and intimidated his victims.

The abuse was embedded in an environment in which great trust was placed in the priests - to the point that the girls, alone or in pairs, sometimes stayed with the priest for long periods of time.

According to Kaufmann, Ue.

also exploited the social and emotional plight of children and their parents.