A German woman committed one of the worst acts perpetrated on an innocent child in recent memory, selling her eight-year-old son on the darknet to pedophiles, who raped him repeatedly.
The 48-year-old woman, who has been sentenced to over 12 years in prison for selling her young son on the darknet to abusers, has a 39-year-old partner who is a convicted pedophile, according to The Guardian. He was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl, The New York Times reported. The Times added:
The court found that the man had assaulted the 3-year-old daughter of acquaintances who had visited the family for play dates. When the families’ relationship soured and the girl no longer visited, the man started his repeated assault of the woman’s son, the court said, with the woman’s full knowledge and participation. … The mother always stayed close by during the assaults, to act as a calming influence, according to testimony heard in court.
Almost 60 separate identified acts starting in 2015 targeting the son were listed; the partner received a 12-year prison sentence plus a preventative detention order, which will effectively function as a life sentence. Six other men who had paid the couple to abuse the boy, who is now 10, were sentenced to between eight and 10 years.
The men who abused the boy allegedly paid as much as $11,000 to the couple, who identified as Berrin T and Christian L, and admitted in court that they had sold the boy and even abused him themselves. The Guardian added, “Others on trial included a 44-year-old German who was given access to rape the boy but was prevented by the mother from carrying out his wish to kill him.”
Videos of the abuse were reportedly sold for huge amounts of money via the darknet. According to Judge Stefan Bürgelin, the boy’s mother decided to take part in putting her child in the sex ring because she was afraid her partner would leave her, although later the vast amounts of money were the motivating factor.
A youth services agency had been monitoring the family, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the boy was placed in a foster home. He was returned to his mother, who convinced a court that she could protect him from her partner.