German prosecutors have charged a paediatrician with 130 counts of sexual abuse, including the rape of children, most of them in his care, in a case that has caused shock and prompted clinics to step up safeguards.
The 46-year-old doctor, whose name has not been released, has been in custody since November after a mother suspected her child had been assaulted and notified authorities. The doctor worked in clinics in Brandenburg state, surrounding Berlin.
Announcing the charges this week, prosecutors said the alleged crimes were committed between 2013 and 2025. They did not specify how many children were believed to have been abused.
“The accused is charged with offences against sexual autonomy in a total of 130 cases. These include allegations of serious sexual abuse of children and rape,” the prosecutor’s office in the state capital, Potsdam, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The doctor is alleged to have committed most of the offences “in the course of his professional duties” at clinics operated by the Havelland healthcare group in the Brandenburg towns of Rathenow and Nauen.
“The accused remains in pre-trial detention,” the statement said, adding that the charges were brought on 6 May. A regional court in Potsdam will decide whether to proceed to trial.
At the time of the paediatrician’s arrest, investigators seized data storage devices believed to contain relevant images.
Bild newspaper said the mother’s complaint came after her child was allegedly assaulted while being treated in the paediatric ward of Rathenow hospital.
After the case came to light in January, the Havelland Kliniken group said it was conducting an internal review with the help of experts. It had emerged that the “four-eyes protocol”, under which two people must be present during an examination of a child, had not always been respected, it said.
“The allegations undermine the trust of patients and their families,” the group’s medical director, Mike Lehsnau, said.
After the charges were announced, the group released a second statement, saying it would “fully support” prosecutors and provide any relevant information. “Our sympathy goes out to all patients who may have been harmed, as well as to their families,” it said.
In France last May, a former surgeon, then aged 74, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a three-month trial for the sexual abuse of hundreds of patients, most under the age of 15 – the biggest child abuse trial in the country’s history.
Joël Le Scouarnec worked as a digestive surgeon in public and private hospitals across Brittany and the west of France, often operating on children with appendicitis.
He was accused of 111 rapes and 189 sexual assaults between 1989 and 2014 at a dozen hospitals. Many of the children he assaulted were under anaesthetic or waking up after operations. Some were assaulted in their hospital beds. Their average age was 11.
The ruling added to pressure on the French government to address failings in the health and justice system.