Major Trial Begins in Germany Over Largest Darknet Pedophile Network

The trial for the largest known pedophile network in Germany has begun in Cologne. The main defendant, 43-year-old Jörg L. from the town of Bergisch Gladbach, is considered the first node in this network. The former chef is accused of committing sexual acts with his three-month-old daughter, recording them on video, and distributing the footage to like-minded individuals.

The case started with police raids at Jörg L.’s apartment in the fall of last year, where officers found not only pornographic materials but also evidence of numerous contacts with whom he exchanged such content via chats and messengers. According to the German newspaper Bild, the number of suspects has reached 30,000 people across all regions of the country. Fifty children have already been identified as victims.

As reported by the state news agency Deutsche Welle (DW), “an unremarkable house in the small town of Bergisch Gladbach: a small, well-kept garden at the entrance, a flat roof—an ideal illustration of the life of a typical German middle-class family. According to neighbors, a nice family lived there—no complaints, no oddities.”

The discovery of child pornographic photos and videos, as well as chats where Jörg L. communicated under the pseudonyms “lilac06789 Homer Simpson” and “Bull’s Eye,” became the first link in the investigation into child sexual abuse. In the fall of 2019, a special unit called “Berg” was created within the Cologne criminal police specifically for this investigation. Initially, it included 350 people, but the number has since been reduced to 130. Every day, members of the special group review terabytes of photo and video materials, mostly containing scenes of severe child abuse.

“Such photos and videos always affect the psyche—even the psyche of experienced police officers,” says detective Lisa Wagner. Three investigators from the Berg unit had to seek medical help and transfer to other departments. However, those who continue are driven by the desire to identify the perpetrators and rescue children from this nightmare, Wagner explains.

Currently, the list of suspects includes 87 people, according to prosecutor Markus Hartmann, head of the Central Office and Contact Point for Combating Cybercrime in North Rhine-Westphalia. This agency handles particularly serious cybercrimes, including the “Bergisch Gladbach case.”

DW notes that examining the evidence against each of the 87 accused continues to reveal new leads, and the number of suspected criminals is growing. Prosecutor Hartmann emphasizes that all cases are links in one giant chain: “They form an entire network of communication structures that, according to investigators, facilitated the commission of these criminal acts.”

At times, up to 1,800 people participated in chats simultaneously. “By communicating in these chats, they reinforced each other’s belief that seducing children and sexually abusing them is socially acceptable and permissible,” Hartmann points out. He calls this a “significant distortion of perception.” The realization that a grave crime had been committed was dulled by interaction with other offenders. “They assured each other that everything they were doing was completely normal, even to the point of claiming that the criminal acts were committed with the child’s mutual consent,” says the prosecutor.

The number of registered cases of child sexual abuse and the distribution of child pornography in Germany continues to rise. In 2019, nearly 16,000 criminal cases were initiated for sexual abuse. More than 12,000 criminal cases related to child pornography were under investigation by the police—twice as many as in 2016.

Additionally, investigators have identified nearly 3,000 cases of cyber-grooming—a type of online child sexual abuse where offenders pose as teenagers on social networks, gain children’s trust, and attempt to obtain intimate videos or photos, later blackmailing them for more explicit materials, money, or offline meetings.

However, the number of unreported crimes is about seven times higher, stresses Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the federal government’s commissioner for preventing child sexual abuse. He insists that combating this crime must be seen as a national priority.

The Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel explored why so many cases of child abuse remain undisclosed. The main reasons are the shame and fear experienced by victims, as well as the reluctance of those around them—at home, in schools, boarding schools, and other institutions where such cases are most common—to bring these issues to light. These crimes only become public when the victim starts to speak out. Therefore, the newspaper argues, society’s task is to help victims of abuse find their voice and self-awareness.