A 45-year-old man appears before the Strasbourg Criminal Court on Tuesday and Wednesday accused of sexually assaulting 17 children while he was an after-school entertainer in Lampertheim (Bas-Rhin).
The accused, a family man, has been working at the Lampertheim leisure center since 2000, where he was described as a “reliable” and “serious” colleague.
The charges against him cover the period from January 2008 to December 2021. He is also charged with sexually assaulting his sister-in-law, who is 20 years his junior, between 2004 and 2010.
He also has to answer for the incarceration of thousands of child pornographic images found on his computer equipment.
After a report by the director of the leisure center in June 2021, the first investigations had been launched. In view of the host’s denials, this case was dropped because the judges had insufficiently characterized the offence.
Another complaint, filed in December 2021 by a 20-year-old young woman, had allowed the search to resume. During his police custody, the suspect then recognized touches.
In the weeks that followed, other families filed complaints, particularly following the publication of an article in the newspaper Latest News from Alsace. The suspect also spontaneously mentioned sexual assaults on other minors. Most often, he acted by taking the children on his lap and touching them over or under their clothing.
A total of 19 cases of minors were dealt with in the investigations. Two were released, but 17 others (16 girls and one boy, aged 6 to 14) are on trial. The suspect, who was remanded in custody in March 2022, will appear in custody. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros.
“We are waiting for him to assume his responsibilities in court,” Olivier Zaiger, the leisure center’s lawyer, told AFP. “Our concern is that this file is just the tip of the iceberg,” he added, marveling at the possibility that other sexual assaults have not been brought to the attention of investigators.
When asked, the defendant’s lawyer did not immediately respond.
The investigation also focused on the defendant’s sexual assault on his two younger sisters. But in each case the proceedings were dropped without further action, with the facts being recorded.