After the violent crime against twelve-year-old Luise from Freudenberg in North Rhine-Westphalia, the police and public prosecutors are investigating the background to the case. It was initially unclear whether the police had already found a murder weapon. The investigators did not provide any information on the motive, with reference to the children who were still under criminal responsibility.
Two girls, ages 12 and 13, have confessed to stabbing the 12-year-old. The alleged perpetrators and the victim are said to have known each other.
Justice Minister Buschmann dismayed
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann was deeply shocked last night. Children under the age of 14 are not criminally prosecuted, “but our legal system knows other ways to react, such as child and youth welfare law and family law,” said the FDP politician to the German Press Agency.
The twelve-year-old had been missing since Saturday and was found dead on Sunday near a cycle path in Rhineland-Palatinate, right on the state border with North Rhine-Westphalia. Numerous knife wounds were found during the autopsy. The girl had bled to death.
The suspect girls were targeted by the investigators because their statements from an initial hearing contradicted the statements of other witnesses. At a repeated hearing in the presence of legal guardians and psychologists on Monday, they were confronted with the contradictions and finally confessed to the crime, the investigators said. Both girls had not previously been noticed by the police.
Alleged perpetrators in the care of the youth welfare office
According to the head of the Koblenz public prosecutor’s office, Mario Mannweiler, the alleged perpetrators are “in a protected room in the care of the youth welfare office”.
Children under the age of 14 when they commit a crime are considered innocent by law. Because it is assumed that they do not yet have a sufficient overview of the consequences of their actions. They cannot be tried and cannot be convicted. According to the police and the public prosecutor’s office, there is currently no indication that other people were involved, especially not adults.
Search call by the Siegen-Wittgenstein police Notification by the police and the Koblenz public prosecutor’s office
