WBecause he raped and sexually abused young people and a child for years, the Frankfurt Regional Court sentenced a former football coach to twelve years and nine months in prison on Thursday. The possible maximum sentence would have been 15 years. In addition, the youth protection chamber ordered that after the sentence had been served, the thirty-five-year-old was to be taken into preventive detention. According to current assessments, he has a penchant for such acts and an ongoing threat to the general public is to be expected.
Sven B. was accused of 69 acts between 2014 and 2021, committed on eleven boys between the ages of ten and 16. B. was arrested in December 2021, previously he had worked as a youth coach at SV Wehen; the association terminated him without notice. According to the public prosecutor’s office, young footballers from the third division club were not among the victims. B. had previously trained other youth teams in southern Hesse.
Anonymous threats via social networks
According to the court’s findings, the accused used anonymous threats via social networks to get his victims to confide in him with their concerns. He got them drunk, and later he also used sedatives to make the boys weak. B. recorded some actions, the police later secured the videos on his cell phone. Although there have been rumors before, B. was only reported in early 2021. The young people kept silent, mainly out of shame, said the Chamber President during the verdict. Many of the victims were traumatized and suffered from what they had experienced.
At the end of the trial, which lasted several months, the public prosecutor’s office had requested a sentence of 14 years and preventive detention. During the main hearing, which was largely closed to the public to protect the victims, the accused partially confessed to the crimes after some of his victims had been heard as witnesses in front of the youth chamber. The defense requested an eleven-year prison sentence, but did not see the requirement for preventive detention as met.
