German police officer still on duty after conviction of child abuse

A special investigator who looked into the abuse case in Germany's Ludge, in which at least 32 minors aged between 4 and 13 were exposed to sexual abuse, has discovered that during his investigation a police officer who has a criminal record for child pornography was still on duty.

The discovery came amid an ongoing investigation into crimes allegedly perpetrated by three suspects who are accused of sexually abusing 27 girls and 4 boys for almost a decade between 2008 and 2018.

The police officer in question was found guilty of possessing and procuring child pornography in 2011, according to a report published in Kolner Stadt- Anzeiger, a German media outlet, which cited the North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Ministry. 

The prosecutor who filed the charges against the officer had asked the court to remove him from duty, yet the court handed down a relatively lenient judgment against the officer and decided that a demotion would be sufficient. 

After the sentence was delivered, the officer was relegated and transferred to the Lippe district police department.

Ministry spokesperson confirmed that the officer remained on duty but added that the officer in question had no links to the Ludge case.

The latest incident involving a police officer is deemed by many as another negligence by the German authorities – following an array of scandals erupting one after another related to the Ludge case.

At least 31 children, aged four to 13 were exposed to sexual abuse between 2008 and 2018 at a campsite in Lugde, a town in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. 

Three suspects were detained as part of the investigation into widespread child exploitation who were accused of perpetrating 1,000 individual offences against children. 

The incident morphed into a scandal after it became public that the primary suspect of the investigation was given consent to adopt a minor from an orphanage – who later became another victim of the suspect's.

The scandal grew bigger when a suitcase of evidence went missing from police evidence room causing an uproar in the country. The scale of the case had already led the German public to question how such mass abuse could have continued without authorities knowing about it.

In a bid to alleviate the tensions, the minister said that the suspects could still be convicted despite the missing evidence.

Further offences revealed

According to Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger, after it became public that the police officer in Lippe committed the crime he was convicted of, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia issued an order to investigate further sexual offences within the state institutions. 

During the investigation, the special investigator found out about another case in which an officer had secretly installed a camera in his private bathroom.

Additionally, another incident was revealed, in which a female commissioner had been harassed by her superior in 2013. The report claims both officers are still on duty.

The ministry reportedly instructed the authorities in the district of Lippe "to take into account officers’ background" before assigning them for a specific task. 

For instance, the officers that were implicated in crimes related to sexual abuse will not be working in areas that deal with sexual offences.

In addition to the police department, social institutions are also under fire on the grounds of neglect pertaining to the foster daughter of the chief suspect Andreas V. 

According to local sources, lawyer of the victim intends to file a lawsuit against Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia States alleging that "If the authorities had done their work properly, my client and other children would not have gone through all this suffering."