In a course of in France The so-called masked man, who had already been convicted of three little one murders in Germany, was sentenced to life imprisonment for one more homicide. The court docket in Nantes, western France, discovered the 55-year-old German serial offender Martin N. responsible of the homicide of the then ten-year-old Jonathan in April 2004, because the newspapers “Le Parisien”, “Le Figaro” and different French media reported from the courtroom. With the decision, the court docket met the calls for of the general public prosecutor’s workplace, which emphasised in its plea that the homicide bore “the handwriting” of the defendant.
Jonathan was kidnapped from a faculty camp in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins in western France. His physique was found just a few weeks later, unclothed, in a pond round 30 kilometers away. In the course of the trial, the defendant, who got here from Bremen, clearly denied involvement within the demise of the French boy a number of occasions. “I didn’t try this,” he testified. His protection had pleaded for acquittal because of an absence of concrete proof that the defendant was truly in France and dedicated the crime.
“Masks Man” convicted of three murders in Germany
In Germany, the “Masks Man” had abused small boys for nearly 20 years and murdered three of them aged 8, 9 and 13. Between 1992 and 2001, the educator sneaked into the beds of dozens of victims at evening in northern Germany sporting a masks. After a protracted felony puzzle, a former sufferer lastly led the police on the path of the person who was arrested in Hamburg-Wilstorf in 2011. In 2012 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Stade regional court docket. He had confessed to most of his crimes throughout his trial.
For a very long time the person led a double life with out anybody changing into suspicious. In the course of the day he taken care of his protégés as a carer at vacation camps and in houses. At evening he reworked himself into the “Masks Man” – that is how he turned identified as a result of he hid his face behind a darkish balaclava when committing crimes.
Info from sufferer led to arrest
One of many perpetrator’s abuse victims finally gave the essential clue. The witness reported to the police after one other search name in 2011. He remembered {that a} supervisor at a youth camp had questioned him in a conspicuous method about his residing state of affairs – just a few months later in 1995 he was abused by a masked man.
Since little Jonathan’s case had parallels to the collection of crimes in northern Germany, French investigators have been investigating since 2008 whether or not the German may very well be a candidate for the crime in Brittany. Nevertheless, no concrete proof corresponding to DNA traces have been discovered.
Within the night, a witness noticed a automotive with a German license plate close to a pond that apparently wished to unload one thing there, however then drove away. And in 2017, a fellow prisoner reported that Martin N. had confessed to him that he had killed a baby in France.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:260604-930-175102/2