The Federal Criminal Police chief has warned that the huge increase in cases is stretching police resources. On the same day, a Catholic priest was fired over a probe into child sexual abuse images. The chief of the Federal Criminal Police Service has cautioned that the surge in cases is straining police resources.
On the same day, a Catholic priest was sacked following an investigation into photos of child sexual assault.
In the first half of 2021, the number of cases containing photos of child sexual abuse in Germany nearly doubled, according to the director of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). “We’re getting more reports about these types of crimes, and we’re getting more investigations,” Münch added.
BKAAccording to BKA President Holger Münch, there were as many cases from January to July as there were in the entire previous year, according to Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “The huge growth… will gradually put police resources to their limits,” he said, adding that the BKA will likely be asked to “give more intense help” to police in Germany’s 16 states in the battle against crimes involving child sexual abuse photos.
The number of incidents of abuse is continuously increasing.
Münch did not provide exact numbers for this year, although BKA documented 18,761 instances in 2020, up nearly 53% from the previous year. TA additional 2,600 incidents were reported by a US-based child protection organization in Germany, according to the police agency. BKA said in 2020, it had received more In 2020, the BKA stated it received more than 55,600 tips concerning probable criminal offenses involving the production and dissemination of photos portraying children’ sexual abuse.
An inquiry of a Catholic priest is underway
Münch’s remarks came on the same day that a Catholic priest from Osnabrück, in Germany’s northwest, was being probed for alleged offenses including child sex abuse photographs. The clergyman has been stripped of his responsibilities with immediate effect, according to a representative for the Diocese of Osnabrück, who talked to the KNA news agency on Sunday.
The priest had already told the bishop of the inquiry against him, according to the spokeswoman.
The darknet platform has been taken down.
With over 400,000 members, German authorities discovered one of the world’s largest underground websites for child sexual assault photos in May. Four persons were detained in connection with the Boystown platform, which operated on the so-called Darknet.
In After the mass sharing of material revealing the sexual abuse of youngsters in chat rooms in July, authorities identified over 1,600 offenders. As a consequence, suspects were found in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and the United States. In the western city of Münster, a child sex ring operating out of a garden summer home was discovered last year. In July, the principal defendant received a 14-year term, while his 47-year-old mother received a five-year sentence for her role as an accomplice. Three additional guys were sentenced to ten to twelve years in prison. The men filmed their sexual assaults on children and uploaded to the internet what presiding judge Matthias “Horrific and very distressing footage,” Pheiler said.
