Police arrest German teacher over five paedophile killings

Apr 15, 2011, 11:59 GMT

Verden, Germany - German police said Friday they had arrested a 40-year-old teacher who admits abducting and murdering three boys and sexually attacking about 40 others in their homes.

The single man, who was detained Wednesday in Hamburg, denies two similar abduction-killings in France and the Netherlands.

State prosecution officials named the suspect as Martin N, without giving his full surname.

At a news conference in Verden, near Hamburg, police said they had interviewed the accused in 2007, after complaints of paedophile molestation against him.

Police said that a recollection in February by a victim, who was attacked in his home at night in 1995 at the age of 10, of how a counsellor had asked him during summer camp where he lived had led them to interview the accused again.

The suspect, who works in adult education, had seemed pleasant, helpful and intelligent to those who knew him.

Detective Alexander Horn used the phrase 'dual bookkeeping' to described the suspect's ability to keep up a secret life of crime without any of his acquaintances noticing.

In the first murder, in 1992, a 13-year-old boy, Stefan, vanished from his boarding school dormitory south of Hamburg. The body was found buried in sand hills. North of Hamburg, a boy, 8, was abducted from a tent in 1995. The body was found in sand dunes in Denmark.

Martin N also confessed to a 2001 abduction of a boy named Dennis, 9, from a hostel near Cuxhaven, northern Germany, as well as more than 40 sexual attacks on young boys in the city of Bremen, mainly in their homes.

Police said the suspect confirmed he had made trips abroad, but denied a 1998 murder in the Netherlands and a 2004 killing in France.

The inquiry is continuing, with police hoping to find more evidence in locked files on the suspect's computer. So far, police do not know of any attacks more recent than 2004, reporters were told.

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