German paediatrician on trial for sexually abusing over 70 children
A 46-year-old doctor in eastern Germany faces more than 130 charges of child sex abuse spanning over a decade. He largely admitted the acts in court.
Paediatrician charged with abusing more than 70 children at eastern German clinics
A 46-year-old paediatrician went on trial in Potsdam on Monday, charged with sexually abusing more than 70 children across a period of more than a decade, Times of Malta reports. The defendant faces over 130 criminal counts linked to alleged offences committed whilst he worked at clinics in the eastern German towns of Nauen and Rathenow between 2013 and 2025.
After prosecutors read out the charges in court, the doctor spoke briefly to acknowledge most of the alleged acts, reaffirm confessions he had made previously, and express what he described as a profound sense of guilt.
In the majority of documented cases, the defendant allegedly entered the rooms of his young patients — most of them male — and instructed them to undress so that he could photograph or film them. In many of those instances, he is further accused of carrying out sexual assaults whilst performing, or appearing to perform, medical procedures.
Prosecutors say that in at least four cases he exploited medical visits to daycare centres to abuse young children, again recording images of the acts. He is also alleged to have met on repeated occasions with a former patient aged between 15 and 16 at a residence within one of the clinics, where sexual acts were allegedly filmed.
The investigation was triggered approximately a year ago when the mother of one child reported suspected abuse to authorities. Searches of the doctor's electronic devices subsequently uncovered visual evidence of additional offences, according to prosecutors. He has remained in pretrial detention since his arrest.
The trial is being held in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, and is expected to continue until December.
Source: Times of Malta