Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

BERLIN—A German court has convicted a Roman Catholic priest of some 250 counts of sexually abusing children over a several-year period and sentenced him to six years in prison.

German news agency dapd reported that the state court in Braunschweig on Thursday convicted the priest, who was found guilty of abusing three boys aged 9 to 15 between 2004 and 2011. (more…)

Latvia-born Dutch citizen Roberts Mikelsons will be tried for sexually abusing 67 children and making underage pornography, Dutch radio reports.

Mikelsons, 27, has confessed to sexual abuse of 87 children. All Mikelsons’ victims, boys and girls, were up to twelve years old, writes LETA.

However, due to lack of evidence and at the request of some parents, the prosecutor dropped twenty cases, and thus Mikelsons will be tried for sexually abusing 67 children. (more…)

BRUSSELS – Belgium’s Roman Catholic church is to conduct psychological tests on candidates for priesthood to weed out any with pedophile tendencies.

“The Church must do a better job to protect children,” Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard told VTM television late Monday in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal that has shaken the Belgian Catholic church.

Men who enter a seminary will be “screened” and they will have follow-ups with psychologists, Leonard said, adding that a code to prevent child abuse was prepared by bishops and will be published soon. (more…)

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is set to deport a German pedophile, who was wanted for sexually abusing 17 minors in his country.

In a report to BI Commissioner Ricardo David Jr., Immigration legal chief Arvin Santos identified the German national as Gisbert Leistner (49), who went into hiding in the Philippine for 13 years.

The suspect is presently detained at the immigration jail in Taguig City.

Santos said the BI board of commissioners issued a summary deportation against Leistner, thus he will be expelled as soon as the German embassy releases his travel documents. BI operatives arrested Leistner last April 7 in Angeles City, Pampanga. (more…)

President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted amendments to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, introducing chemical castration for criminals guilty of sexual offences against children, a Duma official said on Tuesday.

The castration bill, designed to “increase the effectiveness of the prevention of the strikingly brutal crimes” against children, also introduces life sentence as a possible punishment for pedophiles who are repeat offenders.

The bill also stipulates voluntary medical treatment, including chemical castration, for other rapists.

Medvedev, who first proposed the introduction of chemical castration for pedophiles in May, said punishment for such criminals should be “as harsh as possible.” “A liberal approach here is totally unacceptable,” he said. (more…)

An international band of human traffickers has been caught smuggling children to Germany from Haiti and beyond, then selling them to paedophiles, officials said Friday. The group allegedly posed as an aid organisation, luring the children with promises of a better life.

Two men from Berlin were arrested at the Munich airport this week while trying to illegally enter the country with a 10-year-old, law enforcement officials told daily Berliner Morgenpost.

They came under suspicion when immigration agents suspected the boy’s Brazilian papers were forged. He was later found to be Costa Rican, though most of the children involved have been from Haiti.

Arrest warrants have since been issued for both men, with investigators from the state criminal police (LKA) and state prosecutors manning the case. (more…)

Koblenz, Germany – A German man admitted in court on Monday to around 160 counts of sexually abusing and raping three of his children in an incest case which has shocked Germany.

Detlef S, 48, who earlier acknowledged that he had fathered seven children by his stepdaughter, is also accused of having forced his daughters to have sex with men in exchange for money.

The accused, dubbed the ‘German Fritzl’ by the media, had so far only admitted to abusing his daughter, who is now aged 18, as well as fathering the children of his stepdaughter, who is now 27.

But on the next-to-last day of the trial, he admitted to abusing his stepson as well.

Tears flowing down his cheeks and his voice quaking, he offered amends. ‘I want to apologize to the victims. I am really sorry,’ he said.

His full surname has not been printed by the majority of German media because of privacy and libel laws. Media have compared him to Austrian Josef Fritzl, who had held his daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years in a basement until her release in April 2008. (more…)