The priest was sentenced to twelve years in prison by the Cologne Regional Court in February 2022. From 1993 to 2018, he sexually abused nine girls in Gummersbach, Wuppertal and Zülpich, some of them severely. The youngest victim was only nine years old. The priest has since been released from the clergy.
The plaintiff’s case was statute-barred under criminal and civil law, wrote the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. The abuses happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In order for a damages process to be conducted, the Archdiocese of Cologne must waive the defense of the statute of limitations.
In June, the Cologne district court had awarded a victim of abuse 300,000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering. The plaintiff had been sexually abused by a priest for many years as an altar boy in the 1970s. Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki had decided in the case not to assert a statute of limitations.
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