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Criminal Justice Center in Munich: Thomas Pekny did not take part in the day of the trial

Photo: Lukas Barth/dpa

The trial against Thomas Pekny for retrieving abuse recordings from the Internet surprisingly ended with a criminal order against the former theater director. He himself did not appear before the Munich district court.

His defense lawyers justify this with health problems: "He is anything but well." The hearing before the Munich district court was therefore interrupted and those involved in the trial withdrew for the legal discussion.

Pekny was subsequently given a suspended sentence of eight months by way of a penalty order. The former head of comedy at the Bayerischer Hof must not commit any wrongdoing for three years, otherwise his probation will be revoked. He also has to pay 5,000 euros to the Munich Child Protection Association and must bear the costs of the procedure.

“Doubts about the feasibility of the main hearing for quite some time”

The judge justified the spontaneous change to the penalty order procedure by saying that due to the defendant's current personal situation there were "doubts about the feasibility of the main hearing for quite some time." The court told SPIEGEL that the defense attorney had requested that the case be moved to the criminal warrant proceedings.

Pekny had accessed child and youth pornography content – ​​the criminal term for abuse recordings – on the Internet several times. During a search of his home as part of other investigations, more than 100 files were found on his laptop, which had been accessed over a period of almost two years. Investigators estimated that some of the girls photographed who had been sexually violated were between two and six years old.

This is not the first trial against Pekny. At the end of July 2021, he was acquitted of allegations of serious sexual abuse of women due to lack of evidence. At the time, the Munich I Regional Court came to the conclusion in its judgment that no proof of the crime could be provided. Pekny, born in 1951, strictly rejected the allegations in the trial and resigned as theater director.

Probably further punishment order legally binding

However, he continued to hold shares in the company that runs the comedy in the Bayerischer Hof. However, his successor as director, René Heinersdorff, no longer wants to work with him. As he told the dpa news agency, he wants to found a new company that will run the theater in the posh Bayerischer Hof hotel in the future and in which Pekny will no longer be involved.

According to the public prosecutor's office, a criminal order for sexual harassment against Pekny became legally binding a few months ago.

Pekny had said when he stepped down as director that he did not and does not want to take advantage of anyone. "I was so affected by what happened that I will certainly be much more sensitive in the future about situations that people around me might find stressful."

bbr/kub/dpa