Paediatrician in Germany charged with 130 cases of child sex abuse

BERLIN – A paediatrician in Germany has been charged with 130 cases of rape and other forms of sexual abuse targeting children, prosecutors said on May 13.

The unidentified suspect who worked in clinics in Brandenburg state near Berlin allegedly committed the crimes over 12 years, they said in a statement, without specifying how many children were abused.

“The accused is charged with 130 counts of sexual offences” while employed by the health-care provider Havelland Kliniken, said the Potsdam public prosecutor’s office.

“These include, among other things, allegations of aggravated sexual abuse of children and rape.”

The offences are alleged to have occurred between Dec 1, 2013, and Nov 5 of 2025.

The prosecutors said “the accused is alleged to have committed a large number of the offences while performing his professional duties” at clinics in Rathenow and Nauen, two towns in Brandenburg.

They said the charges made public on May 13 had been laid on May 6.

The accused remains in pre-trial detention, said the prosecutors, with the case handed over to the regional court in the Brandenburg state capital Potsdam.

Bild daily said the paediatrician, now aged 46, had been arrested in November 2025 after the mother of a female patient in the Rathenow hospital alerted police.

Investigators had then also seized numerous data storage devices.

The alleged offences recall the case in France of a convicted paedophile who practised as a surgeon for years while repeatedly abusing children in his care.

A French court in May 2025 sentenced retired doctor Joel Le Scouarnec to 20 years in prison after he confessed to sexually abusing or raping 298 patients between 1989 and 2014.

Of those, more than 250 victims were under 15. AFP