A 20-year-old was arrested in Hamburg, Germany, following an FBI tip. The suspect, allegedly part of a group calling themselves "Raubtiere" (predators), is accused of 123 heinous crimes against eight children and adolescents, including the murder of a 13-year-old.
The group targeted vulnerable children and teenagers with anxieties or depression, contacting them through online forums, Instagram, and gaming platforms like Roblox. They built trust, feigning friendship or even love, to exploit their victims sexually, eventually extorting explicit photos.
The investigation was led by Björn Gebauer, a lead investigator who described the victims as readily absorbing the attention from these predators. The scale of the crimes deeply affected the investigators themselves.
Die Täter nennen sich "Raubtiere". Sie suchen sich die Schwächsten. Systematisch sprechen sie in Internetforen Kinder und Jugendliche mit Ängsten oder Depressionen an, schicken ihnen Nachrichten bei Instagram oder über Gaming-Plattformen wie Roblox.
Sie heucheln ihren Opfern Freundschaft vor, manchmal sogar Liebe. Die labilen Kinder, so schildert es einer der Chefermittler, Björn Gebauer, am Mittwochmorgen im Hamburger Polizeipräsidium, hätten die Aufmerksamkeit aufgesogen "wie ein Schwamm". Doch das alles diente nur dazu, sie sexuell auszubeuten, sie irgendwann um freizügige Fotos zu bitten. Danach begann das Martyrium der Kinder.
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