The case of a trans-identified male who is accused of supplying an elderly man with young girls to abuse is being heard in the German courts.
The 31-year-old man who identifies as a woman and is known only as ‘Arbend’ is accused of recruiting children for 81-year-old Munich millionaire identified as Helmut D. to allegedly abuse.
The identity of the accused was anonymised by law in Germany, however news sites outside of Germany have identified him in full.
The charge sheet includes allegations of “abuse of little girls to child pornography and human trafficking to forced prostitution” according to local newspaper Rheinische Post.
Helmut D. is alleged to have searched the internet for a period of 12 years between 2005 -2017 in hopes of finding mothers willing to allow him to abuse their prepubescent daughters in exchange for thousands of euros.
He is alleged to have been interested in little girls under the age of eight years who were as “small and slim as possible.”
Investigators say they found hundreds of child abuse images of child pornography as well as dozens of videos on a data storage device including images of the abuse of infants after searches of Helmut D.’s home and workplace. He was taken into custody over a year ago.
The 81-year-old is also accused of instructing his alleged accomplice to bring children to him to abuse. The 31-year-old make-up artist is alleged to have brought the five-year-old daughter of a person known to him to be abused by Helmut D. as well as attempting to do the same with the seven-year-old cousin of the same child.
Arbend reportedly complained of being housed in a male prison “as a trans woman.”
The pair are also accused of making plans to engage in “combined sexual acts with several children to be abused” which Rheinishe Post says “were probably not implemented.”
Arbend is accused of using secretly recorded images in order to blackmail Helmut D. who is alleged to have paid over €200,000 in this context.
It was reported that in at least two cases, a mother is said to have brought her children to Helmut D.’s home in a wealthy neighbourhood in Munich for him to abuse for which she was allegedly paid several thousand euros.
The indictment—which took about an hour to read out—alleged that a 12-year-old girl had to address Helmut D. as “Papa” while he abused her as her mother watched.
Bild reported that Helmut D. instructed a prostitute to act as his eight-year-old daughter and instructed her to dress in childlike clothing.
The woman was also instructed “to take part in perverse role-playing games, came to the meetings in childish clothing” and, according to the public prosecutor’s office, played “the 8-year-old daughter of the accused,” which is not an illegal act.
Child porn was also allegedly shown to the woman during the sex games, according to the prosecution, who say that Helmut D. even showed videos of himself abusing children to her and offered her money if she would procure children with whom he wished to act out his “sexual inclinations,” which didn’t take place.
Over 30 days of hearings have been set out by presiding Judge Matthias Braumandl up until 2025 with the two defendants reportedly remaining silent when the extensive list of charges was read to the court.
This article, written by Fatima Gunning, was originally published by Gript on September 27, 2024 and appears here with kind permission.
