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Show up unexpectedly, don’t give the other person time to react, and above all, avoid the suspect from locking the cell phone. That’s important, says the policeman. Michael Esser: “For us it is a decisive advantage if we can take advantage of a moment of surprise as much as possible to have access to open cell phones, that is, open mobile devices.”
On Tuesday, nearly 1,000 agents searched for evidence in a raid in twelve federal states. Initially 50 suspects were arrested, including two women. After treatment by the identification service, all the suspects were allowed to leave the police station. Investigators seized 2,000 items in 60 apartments and houses, mainly data carriers and computers, but also two locked safes that will now be opened. And only: cell phones.
Try to destroy the phone
In Saxony, Michael Esser reports that the day after the raid, a suspect was still desperately trying to destroy his cell phone in the bathroom. But the cops were faster. “That shows: we are with the right people,” says Esser. Officers captured a North Rhine-Westphalia suspect on the Baltic Sea beach, where a police observation team had located him.
Chief prosecutor Markus Hartmann said the identities of the defendants had previously been established in an extensive investigation. All 50 people are charged with possessing and distributing child pornography, but not with direct acts of abuse. Therefore, the children were not in immediate danger, says Michael Esser: “Yet each image shows a victim of abuse.”
The 50 preliminary investigations make up just a fraction of the alleged perpetrators who are said to have exchanged child pornographic material at the Bergisch Gladbach abuse complex. A total of 207 suspects known by name are currently under investigation.
The focus of the case is Jörg L. from Bergisch Gladbach, who is said to have planned the abuse of the girl shortly after the birth of his daughter. He has been tried in Cologne since the end of August.
The leader of the investigation group, Michael Esser, said Wednesday that “certainly not all” of the 30,000 possible perpetrators will be identified. But: “None of the perpetrators should be able to sleep soundly.” Esser added: “We could continue in the next few days.”
