A court in the western German city of Cologne on Tuesday sentenced a man to 14 years and six months in prison for child abuse in the infamous Wermelskirchen babysitter trial.

The 45-year-old German had offered himself as a babysitter via online platforms and then came into contact with his victims, the IT expert also recorded the abuse on video.

During the trial at the Cologne Regional Court, he confessed to the acts and described them as “despicable.”

The man was charged with more than 120 cases of sexual violence against 13 children from 2005 to 2019.

According to the indictment, the youngest victim was a girl about one month old.

As with other abuse complexes in Germany in recent years, the case led to numerous other investigations.

The man was arrested by police in December 2021 in a house he shared with his wife in Wermelskirchen, around 20km northeast of Cologne.

During the trial, an officer said that the police had wanted to arrest the suspect on an open computer in order to gain access to videos of the offences and to enable the collection of further child pornography in his possession.

The man had been in a video conference with colleagues when the arrest operation occurred. 

(dpa/NAN)