Abuse complex Bergisch Gladbach
The youngest victim was only three months old
Abuse complex Bergisch Gladbach: A house search in Alsdorf in North Rhine-Westphalia in November 2019. A suspect was arrested here. In total, the investigators came to 30,000 different tracks.
The investigation team "Berg" takes stock: 65 children could be freed from the hands of their tormentors, so far 439 suspects have been identified in connection with the abuse network.
The members of the investigation team had "seen enormous suffering", which had led to psychological stress, said Esser in his summary. The situations were sometimes "very surreal", for example when the children cried after the separation from the abusers. For example, during a hearing, a girl in Aachen desperately clung to a stuffed animal that she had received as a gift from her uncle. "The tragedy in this statement took us all with us, because this uncle was our suspect who had done her indescribable suffering," says a report by the head of operations. "Even the most experienced investigators were shocked by the severity of the abuse."
The Bergisch Gladbach abuse complex describes a large network of suspects who exchanged information about child abuse on the Internet. The case got rolling when investigators searched a father's house in Bergisch Gladbach near Cologne in the fall of 2019 and found tons of child pornography data. In addition, the investigators came across many contacts with men who exchanged videos and images of serious child sexual abuse on the Internet. The police gradually came to more than 30,000 different tracks. 439 suspects have now been identified, said Cologne police chief Uwe Jacob: "Every hour we spent here was worth the effort."
In total, the work of the investigation team "Berg" would have led to 15 "core proceedings", said the head of the Central and Contact Point Cybercrime NRW, Markus Hartmann. In 13 cases, perpetrators had been convicted, in total prison sentences of more than 80 years had been imposed. Two defendants had died before a verdict. The "Special Development Organization Mountain" (BAO Berg) of the Cologne police had started its work in 2019. It will now be dissolved.
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panoram...h-gladbach-ermittlungsgruppe-bilanz-1.5505754
More on this enormous child abuse network. Unbelievable:
After the end of "BAO Berg": How the fight against pedo criminals continues in Cologne
The Bergisch Gladbach case is one of the largest abuse complexes to date. After more than two years of intensive work, the Cologne investigators draw a terrifying conclusion.
Micheal Esser faltered when he spoke on Wednesday about the fate of the 65 children and adolescents who, thanks to the work of the Special Organizational Organization (BAO) Berg in the Cologne police headquarters and the Central and Contact Point Cybercrime (ZAC) of the Cologne public prosecutor's office, have been working since the end of 2019 could be freed from the clutches of their pedophile tormentors. The investigators had seen “enormous suffering”, said the detective director at the press conference on the BAO's final balance sheet. Sometimes the situation was surreal, for example when children cried after separating from perpetrators. During a hearing, a girl from Aachen desperately clung to a stuffed animal that her uncle had given him. “The tragedy took us all with it,” reads the report from the Aachen head of operations, which Esser reads out loud.It was precisely this uncle who tortured and raped the child. "Even the most experienced investigators were shocked by the severity of the abuse."
The Berg case is one of the largest abuse complexes in Germany, and it is also attracting international circles: 439 suspects were identified, 27 arrests were made, 13 of them in North Rhine-Westphalia; seven cases were submitted to Austria, France, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The case got started at the end of 2019 with the arrest of Jörg L. in Bergisch Gladbach. L. had severely sexually tortured and raped his little daughter for many months and shared recordings of it in internet chats with other perpetrators. By evaluating electronic data carriers and countless chat histories, the police and public prosecutor quickly tracked down more and more suspects.
More than 4700 data carriers secured
The matter assumed such enormous dimensions early on that the Cologne police chief Uwe Jacob decided to take an unusual step to free identified victims from acute abuse situations as quickly as possible: he set up a permanent staff. The instrument is otherwise only used for major events such as hostage-taking and terrorist situations.
There were two missions across Germany coordinated from Cologne, each with more than 60 simultaneous searches of apartments.
Courier drivers regularly brought evidence to public prosecutors in other federal states overnight. In five cases, the Cologne investigators even used police helicopters to avoid losing a minute longer than necessary. At times, more than 340 police officers from all over North Rhine-Westphalia were deployed in the BAO Berg. In the snowball process, new investigative approaches and evidence came together: More than 4,700 data carriers such as cell phones, computers, hard drives or USB sticks were seized.
"Without the BAO structure, we would not have been able to cope with the task," says Police President Jacob. Detective Director Esser is also certain: BAO Berg has set new standards in the fight against child abuse. Nevertheless, both are sure that it is now time to dissolve the BAO. The remaining cases are not concerned with acute abuse of children, but “only” with the possession of child pornographic material. They are now being processed by an investigative commission.
There is also an additional commissioner's office in Cologne. And the child abuse task force set up by the ZAC at the beginning of the Berg case has not been a pilot project since October, but a permanent establishment. "The deeds of pedophile criminals have a digital environment," says ZAC director Marcus Hartmann. "Our work does not end with the BAO, it is an important chapter in the fight against child abuse, but just one chapter."
Police President Jacob says that the Lügde, Münster and Bergisch Gladbach cases had made it clear to a broad public that sexual abuse does not take place anywhere in the world, but rather "in the midst of us" and continuously.
He was very pleased with the 13 court rulings so far in the Berg case, with a total of more than 80 years 'imprisonment - Jörg L. received twelve years' imprisonment with subsequent preventive detention.
But then Jacob stated soberly: "I do not think that we have achieved significant deterrence."
https://www.tellerreport.com/life/2...riminals-continues-in-cologne.rJUpRVdnnF.html