Christina Block corrects statement on first meeting with alleged kidnapping organiser at Hamburg court
Defendant businesswoman Christina Block has corrected a previous statement regarding her first conversation with the alleged kidnapping organiser during the trial over the child abduction.
Block admits altered recollection – custody dispute as starting point
After months of silence, defendant businesswoman Christina Block spoke again on the 72nd day of proceedings before the criminal court of Hamburg Regional Court. According to n-tv, the 53-year-old wished to correct individual points of her statement from July 2025 and elaborate on certain aspects. Her voice repeatedly faltered as she spoke about her children.
Block reiterated that she knew nothing of the abduction of her children on New Year's Eve 2023/24. "I was neither prepared nor did I expect their return," she said. Diary entries about the incident did not exist.
However, she acknowledged an altered recollection of her first conversation with David Barkay, the alleged head of the Israeli security firm involved. This had not taken place in a hotel, as she originally stated, but in a restaurant. Block attributed the correction to the events being a long time ago. Barkay's witness statement had refreshed her memory. He had previously described her original account as untrue.
Block also corrected the content, stating that the first conversation with Barkay had been about the children – but only regarding the gathering of information for the ongoing custody dispute. At the start of proceedings, she had testified that the firm had initially dealt exclusively with cybersecurity for the Block Group.
Background: Abduction following years-long custody dispute
The case has a long history. The father, Stephan Hensel, who lives in Denmark, failed to return the children to Block in Hamburg as agreed after a weekend visit in August 2021. This was followed by mutual accusations and an extended custody dispute.
Block is accused of hiring the Israeli security firm to abduct her then ten-year-old son and thirteen-year-old daughter from the father's home in Denmark to Germany on New Year's Eve 2023/24. A total of seven people are standing trial in the proceedings, which have been running since July 2025. Only one 37-year-old Israeli has so far admitted the allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent.
Chat group and secret cameras
Block confirmed that she had been a member of a chat group called "Bring Kids Home" with the later alleged perpetrators for around four weeks in spring. "The chat enabled an exchange about the situation of my children," she said. She had regarded the additional mobile phone provided to her for this purpose as a professional approach by the security firm.
Regarding the secret installation of two cameras on her ex-husband's property months before the abduction, she claimed to know nothing. "I would have clearly objected," she explained.
Block spoke at length several times about her desperation after the children disappeared in August 2021. "I fell into an abyss. A nightmare began that has found no end to this day," said the mother. She quoted from a letter from a co-defendant relative who, after a trip to Hensel's house in Denmark, had reported seeing her daughter briefly. The girl had been completely transformed; her eyes were "cold, empty and frightened".
Defence counsel: documents exonerate Block and Delling
In the morning of the 72nd day of proceedings, the defence counsel had initially made statements regarding the so-called self-reading list – a non-public procedural step in which numerous documents on various topics were brought to the attention of those involved in the trial.
David Rieks, defence counsel for co-defendant former sports presenter Gerhard Delling, stated that from the hundreds of documents one could not in any way conclude that his client knew of the planned New Year's Eve action. Delling, Block's life partner, is charged with aiding and abetting.
Block's defence counsel Ingo Bott also saw himself confirmed by the documents: "The New Year's Eve action does not bear the hallmark of Ms Block." Had she known what the perpetrators intended, she would have intervened, he argued. Bott also expressed doubts about calendar entries by Barkay that were supposed to document alleged meetings with Block and which the man had handed over to investigators. Several appointments were simply claimed retrospectively, the defence counsel is convinced.
Substitute judge steps in
It also became known on the 72nd day of proceedings that one of the judges in the case had fallen away. However, this was unproblematic, a court spokesman stated. "The substitute judge has stepped in to the core committee that will ultimately make the decision here. She has heard every second of this main hearing from day one." Block intends to continue her statement on Wednesday.
Source: n-tv