Sektenguru receives three years in prison

Court sentences parents for ill-treatment of wards

08/05/2014

In the process around the so-called „Champagne guru from Lonnerstadt“ the district court Nuremberg-Fürth came to a final verdict: Like the news agency „dpa“ According to reports, the 49-year-old mother of the seriously ill boy and his 55-year-old partner have been imprisoned for three years for mistreatment of wards. The two adults did not seem to have given any medication to the cystic fibrosis sufferer from November 1999 to December 2002 - instead, they urged him to meditate.

Parents do not care about care of the seriously ill son
A twelve-year-old boy, who suffers from the incurable metabolic disease cystic fibrosis, gets from his parents over three years, no medication and also necessary doctor visits is not taken care of. What sounds like a nightmare, has a 27-year-old man apparently had to experience first-hand. The man had lived with his mother and her partner for many years and had become the victim of the brutal ideas of the two adults. These assumed that cystic fibrosis could be cured without medication and medical care - and let the boy, for example, meditate for hours. As the young man reports, his mother's friend had repeatedly told him, "if I meditate, meditate, I am healed at 17, 18." In addition, the boy had to fast again and again - although especially in cystic fibrosis by the higher compared to healthy energy needs a balanced, high-fat diet is important. As a result, the boy was emaciated to almost 30 kilograms - extreme underweight, because a twelve-year-old would have had to weigh about 50 kilograms in size.

Prosecutor demands four years in prison
But the irresponsible behavior of the parents does not remain without consequences. Already at the age of 15, the boy fled to his biological father, where he was finally treated with medication and slowly eased his symptoms. Ten years later, the boy finally filed a criminal complaint in November 2012 against his mother and her life partner. With success: For now, the woman and the 55-year-old man who became known as the "cult guru of Lonnerstadt" became one „dpa“-Information also punished in court for their former behavior: The Nuremberg-Fürth District Court imposed a three-year prison sentence for mistreatment of wards, on the grounds that the child would soon have died without the late treatment. While the defense pleaded for acquittal, prosecutor Torsten Haase had even demanded four years in prison, stressing that it did not matter if the parents were part of a sect or not.

Kammer recognizes prejudice and proscription by the media as punitive
However, the chamber acknowledged a media condemnation and proscription and had it mitigated - because in the run-up there had been wild speculations as to whether the man belonged to the "New Group of World Servants", which turned out to be wrong in the trial. Nevertheless, the defendants had left the child to their own devices and released the decision on taking medication and going to the doctor. For the presiding judge Ulrich Flechtner „a complete failure in education“, because for the supply and control of the state of health, only the two adults would have been responsible. „They knew exactly how important a permanent treatment is“, so the judge continued, and yet the two defendants have „Pain and suffering at least approvingly accepted.“

WDR reported in 2012 on the fate of the boy
Again „WDR“ already 2012 in the documentation „Sect children - born to serve“ had shown, the boy could not recover completely in the years after his escape health. Instead, the years of malnutrition, lack of medical attention and medication hadtened the destruction of his lungs. In the program, the role of the youth welfare office was also discussed, which was the WDR to no information, why had not intervened at the request of the school principal and a teacher. The youth welfare office had failed, so the reproach of the sister of the today 27-year-old, who had helped the brother during the escape at that time. „The authorities in Erlangen are lost.“ (No)