In the murder case of 14-year-old Ayleen A. from Gottenheim in southern Baden, the youth forensic Vitos Clinic in Marburg and in Heina, which looked after the alleged 29-year-old perpetrator Jan P. on an inpatient basis until 2017 and on an outpatient basis until 2022, as well as the courts, are trying Finding an answer to why the sex offender has been allowed to move around in public uncontrolled since January 2022.

Rudiger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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The clinic refers to an external psychiatric report;

the court states that the suspect had successfully appealed against an indefinite extension of the supervision of conduct in 2020, so there were no options for extending the supervision of conduct after January 25, 2022.

"The suspect appeared during the conduct supervision with property and traffic offenses, but not with sexual offenses," said the Limburg district court.

Rouven Raatz, the head of human resources and communication at the Vitos Clinic in Heina, announced the end of the state control measures in the Jan Ps case with the external reports and the decisions of the enforcement chambers: In January 2017, the Frankenberg District Court ordered the accommodation of Jan P .declared terminated in a psychiatric hospital.

The offender was initially housed from 2007 to 2010 due to the judge's decision in the youth forensic Vitos Clinic in Marburg.

After coming of age in 2017, he was placed in the adult correctional facility at the Vitos Group psychiatric facility in Heina.

Approximately 38,000 criminals under supervision

“This decision was preceded by an external assessment.

There was no suspension of the measure on probation, but its termination for legal reasons," said Raatz of the FAZ. A return of the former patient to the clinic was not legally possible.

The suspected man was then placed under management supervision, and from 2017 onwards the probation service, the Central Monitoring Office for Sex Offenders at Risk of Recidivism (ZÜRS) and the Heina forensic-psychiatric outpatient clinic, which also belonged to the Vitos Group, were responsible for monitoring him and preventing new sexual offences heard.

In Germany, around 38,000 criminals were under supervision in 2021.

Because Jan P. had lodged a complaint against unlimited management supervision, this ended after five years in January 2022. "Even if we had no further options for intervening, we find the situation very stressful," said Raatz.

Alexander Baur conducts research on the law on criminal measures at the University of Augsburg.

Jan P. was released in 2017 because his dangerousness was no longer judged to be such that he could commit serious crimes.

“So no one explicitly made a positive behavioral prognosis.

It was only said that the danger is no longer so great that a deprivation of liberty can continue to be maintained," said Baur of the FAZ.

However, this should have been done before the supervision of conduct expired.

"Unfortunately, a criminal prognostic misjudgment"

Baur blames three factors for the wrong decisions in this case: First, the experts had given the result "unfortunately a misjudgment in terms of criminal prognosis" and misjudged the sexual delinquency of the perpetrator.

In addition, two amendments in favor of the freedom rights of convicts had had an unfavorable effect: in 2016, the role of experts in such procedures was strengthened in order to counteract the often pessimistic assessments of the clinics.

“The clinics have a say and will also talk to the external appraiser, in fact, in the end the external appraisal is usually the deciding factor at the court,” said Baur.

The quality of forensic reports has been the subject of critical debate for some time.

In 2016, the legal thresholds for further enforcement of the placement beyond ten years were set higher.

At that time, all housed offenders whose continued existence had been examined had to be released.

Jan P. met 14-year-old Ayleen A. in the Freiburg area on July 21 after meeting her in the Fortnite chat and apparently making her compliant through "cybergrooming".

On July 29, a police helicopter spotted Ayleen's body on the surface of the Teufelsee in Wetteraukreis.