Death penalty for child murderers
A right wing protester at demonstration to promote the death penalty holds a banner reading 'Death penalty for child murderers' is seen near the district court in Aachen, western Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003 where the trial of two men started Wednesday, who are accused of having murdered siblings Tom, 11, and Sonja, 9, from Eschweiler, Germany, in March 2003. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
And all my youth passed by sad-hearted,
the joy of Spring was never mine;
Autumn blows through me dread of parting,
and my heart dreams and longs to die.
- Nikolaus Lenau (1802-1850)
Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind.
- Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837)
german news
Court hears of children's murder
NPD demands death penalty for child molestors
5 November 2003
AACHEN - Security was high as a German court heard details Wednesday of how a brother and sister were abducted and killed by two men in a crime which shocked the country earlier this year.
On the first day of their trial in Aachen, 33-year-old Markus Lewendel and 28-year-old Markus Wirtz appeared with their lawyers behind a reinforced glass screen specially constructed for their own protection.
The men are accused of murdering an 11-year-old boy and his nine- year-old sister - named only as Tom and Sonja - whose disappearance from near their home in March had sparked a major police search.
They are also charged with abducting the two children and of seriously sexually assaulting the girl.
A court spokesman said the glass screen had been constructed in view of the "strong emotions" raised by the case and "to prevent reactions which cannot be ruled out from members of the public".
As the trial began around 40 supporters of the right-wing extremist organization NPD demonstrated in Aachen calling for the death penalty.
They were separated by police from another demonstration involving about 170 people against the presence of the NPD.
The case has been receiving prominent media coverage in Germany where the disappearance of the children and subsequent discoveries of their bodies caused shock and outrage.
Tom and Sonja failed to return home after playing at a nearby abandoned mine in Eschweiler, 10 kilometres from Aachen, on 30 March. The next day, the boy's body was found at a road rest stop 15 kilometres away.
Two air force Tornado jets using heat-sensitive imaging joined hundreds of police in a week-long search for Sonja before her body was discovered in a wood about 100 kilometres south of Eschweiler.
Prosecutors have said both men, next-door neighbours in Eschweiler, confessed to the killings after their arrest in Switzerland on 17 April.
The court was told that Wirtz, a computer technician, and Markus Lewendel, a building cleaner, posed as plain-clothes policemen to lure the children into their car.
Both had deliberately set out to look for a young girl to sexually abuse, chief prosecutor Albert Balke said.
"The accused have placed themselves under a heavy burden of guilt," he said.
Both children were tied up with cable and their mouths taped before they were taken to Wirtz's apartment. Tom was later placed in the boot of the men's car and driven to a car park in nearby woods where a plastic bag was placed over his head and he was strangled to death by Wirtz.
He was killed because he was in the way of the accused's plans to sexually abuse his sister, Balke said.
Over the next day Sonja was sexually abused by both men in turns a number of times before the men decided to kill her.
She was taken to a wood where an attempt was made to suffocate her using a plastic bag and length of cord, but she resisted strongly. Wirtz then strangled her with his hands, Balke said.
A statement from Lewendel admitting his part in the killings was read to the court by his lawyer.
Wirtz remained silent. His lawyer, Wolfram Strauch, said in view of the unique public interest in the trial his client felt he "has no opportunity of expressing himself without being misunderstood".
Eleven days have been set aside for the trial which is expected to hear evidence from 30 witnesses and examine reports from 15 specialists. Sentencing is expected on 8 December.
DPA
Source: http://www.expatica.com/germany.asp?...&item_id=35508
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I'll be the first one to admit that my initial reaction to this is to want to torture and murder those men myself, to make them suffer they way the made those two children suffer, the way that those parents will suffer for the rest of their lives. I would never do it, though. That is only part of what separates me from those men.
The traumatizing of an innocent soul is probably the worst crime there is.
Protecting your children is the most primordial of instincts.
Quite a week for it...
''The parents of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman today arrived at the Old Bailey for the trial of their alleged killer.
Kevin and Nicola Wells and Sharon and Leslie Chapman walked into the court together on the opening day of the trial. Mr and Mrs Wells arrived hand-in-hand, and the four parents posed briefly for photographers outside the building.
The disappearance of their daughters, both aged 10, from Soham, Cambridgeshire, on August 4 last year, triggered one of the biggest manhunts ever seen in Britain.
The girls' bodies were found in an overgrown ditch in Lakenheath, Suffolk, 13 days later.
The trial of Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr, the couple arrested in connection with the disappearances, was due to formally begin at the Old Bailey today.
Mr Huntley, a former school caretaker, and Ms Carr, a former classroom assistant at the girls' primary school, have been in custody since their arrests on August 17 last year.
Mr Huntley, 29, has always denied their murder. However, at an earlier court hearing, he admitted a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
His former girlfriend Ms Carr, 26, denies one charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two charges of assisting an offender.
Initial proceedings will concern administrative processes, including the selection of a 12-strong jury to try the case.
On Wednesday, when the trial begins in earnest, Richard Latham QC, prosecuting, is expected to set out the Crown's case of how Holly and Jessica died.
Stephen Coward QC will defend Mr Huntley, with Ms Carr being represented by Michael Hubbard QC. The trial judge is Mr Justice Moses.''
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Ian Huntley's first statement to police
Press Association
Thursday November 6, 2003
The first statement given by Ian Huntley to police was today read out at his Old Bailey trial.
In it, Mr Huntley described the last time he had seen schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The statement read: "On Sunday [August] 4, I was standing out front of my house, brushing my dog. I saw two girls approach at about 6pm from the area of the college.
"One asked me about my partner, Maxine Carr. Maxine worked at St Andrew's, but had had to reapply for her job and had not been given the job.
"I did not know either of the girls. They obviously knew Maxine and obviously wanted to speak to her. They obviously knew where she lived.
"One asked how Miss Carr was. I told her she was not very happy, as she had not been given the job. They said they were very sorry, and walked off in the direction of College Road.
"I did not see them again. Both were wearing Manchester United tops with Beckham at the back."
He described the girls as aged between nine and 10 years old, one with blonde hair and one with brown, both 4ft 9in tall and of slim build.
Mr Huntley continued to tell police that, at around 11pm, he was walking his dog near the sports center. He went past three men who asked him whether he had seen two children.
"I said I had not. They did not give me any details, so I assumed I could not help," the statement said.
"I knew the police were looking for two girls, but did not associate it with the two I had seen earlier.
"This happened later when I spoke to other people. It was only when I heard the two girls were wearing Manchester United shirts that I connected the fact that I may have seen the girls earlier.
"When I had an opportunity, I told police I may have seen the two girls earlier. I did not see the two girls before or since."
· Ian Huntley denies murder, but has pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. The trial continues.''
Would you give a prison sentence to kidnappers - or would that make you the same as them?Originally Posted by Sigrun Christianson
Would you fine those who stole money, or would that make you the same as them?
No, this is just liberal relativism.
The Criminal offends the Nation as a whole, and the Nation has invested in it the right to punish those criminals.
The two cases are NOT the same; one is the offender [the criminal] and the other is offended against [the innocent victim and by extension, the Nation of the victim].
There's no Justice in liberalism.
Why are there beings at all, & why not rather nothing?
[Leibniz/Heidegger]
You're really up in arms over me, aren't you?
How can the same person who thinks pre-emptive murder in "self defense" is defendable feel bad about killing someone after such a heinous crime?
It's a waste of money to house, clothe, feed, entertain and "rehabilitate" rapists in some country club mental institution for the rest of their lives. I say string them up by their genitalia and eviscerate them with meat cleavers. :axe
Uh, where exactly did I say that Vårg was justified in killing that guy... ? Please refrain from attributing notions to me that I did not express. Also, please be a bit more careful and attentive when reading my posts so that I don't have to waste my time replying to unfounded accusations.
Why "those men"?
Myra Hindley and Maxine Carr are just two women whom I can think of who have also committed these type of crimes. Rosemary West was guilty as well.
We need to realise that women are not some infallible creatures but are capable of being just as vile as any man.
Personally, I wouldn't shed a tear for any of these people if they were executed, and I put those who murder their victims in the womb on the same end of the scale - scum.
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