Baden-Baden (dpa/lsw) - The regional court of Baden-Baden wants to examine in the coming year whether a swimming teacher convicted of serious sexual violence against children will be released after serving his sentence or whether he has to remain under lock and key. According to a statement on Friday, it scheduled four hearings in March.
Another juvenile chamber of the court sentenced the man to twelve years in prison in 2018 for abusing more than 30 girls between the ages of four and twelve and ordered subsequent preventive detention. The man had forced the children, injured them roughly in the intimate area and even threatened two victims with death if they did not remain silent. The more than 130 acts happened during his swimming lessons either in the water or in the changing rooms. The man also filmed some.
He had tried to trivialize the crimes and in part denied them, despite the footage that also showed him. In 2018, the regional court had evaluated this as a sign of his dangerousness and justified the preventive detention.
The man appealed the verdict. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) confirmed the sentence, but canceled the preventive detention in 2019 due to legal errors. He saw the man's statements as permissible defensive behavior.
The aspect of preventive detention must therefore now be renegotiated. Among other things, the court must clarify the extent to which the 38-year-old is at risk of recidivism. At the first trial four years ago, an expert had certified that he had little insight and willingness to change.
The case had already been tried a few weeks ago. However, a request to hear another witness messed up the scheduling so that deadlines could no longer be met, a court spokeswoman said. So it starts all over again on March 2nd. Then an expert and a witness are summoned.
In contrast to imprisonment, courts do not impose preventive detention as a punishment, but as a preventive measure. It is intended to protect the population from perpetrators who are considered dangerous even after their imprisonment.
