Criminal proceedings began Monday in southern Germany against a former scout leader who is charged with sexually abusing four boys hundreds of times between 2010 and 2018.
A regional court in Freiburg in the state of Baden-Würrtemberg began the first of a seven-day hearing in the case against a former leader of an protestant scout troop in the town of Staufen.
The prosecution had brought 676 charges of sexual abuse against the man, of which the youth criminal chamber is allowing 330 to be considered in court.The four victims were between the ages of seven and 14 at the time of the abuse.
The fourth victim came into contact with the man at a campsite near Freiburg in 2017 when the boy was 8 years old.The man had previously been accused of sexually abusing children in a earlier case, but was cleared in criminal proceedings that ended in 2007.kp/rt (AFP, epd)