Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The victims of the hundredfold sexual abuse at a campsite in Lügde should be compensated faster according to the will of the black-green government factions in the state parliament. Compensation by the end of the first quarter of 2023 would be “a clear sign for those affected who have experienced incomprehensible human suffering,” according to an application by the CDU and the Greens, which the plenary should vote on Thursday.
Around 40 people may currently be eligible. A decision on compensation payments was only made in very few cases in NRW. The claims can be asserted according to the Victim Compensation Act and are processed by the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL). However, the individual processing of the facts is very time-consuming, it was said. The reason is, among other things, that the files of the public prosecutor's office are perpetrator-oriented and therefore have to be processed again with a view to the fate of the victims. In some cases, the public prosecutor's investigations have already been discontinued. According to the CDU and the Greens, the procedures for victim compensation must be improved on the basis of the experience in the Lügde case.
In Lügde (Lippe district) on the border with Lower Saxony, children had been victims of the most severe sexual violence for years. In September 2019, the Detmold Regional Court sentenced several perpetrators to lengthy prison terms followed by preventive detention.
The SPD in the state parliament called for a special aid fund for the victims of the Lügde abuse complex and their families in order to enable rapid support now. In addition, an ombudsperson should be named to whom victims and families could turn.
