Overview
- The public prosecutor filed charges alleging one completed murder and five attempted murders among 204 offenses said to have occurred between January 2021 and September 2023.
- Investigators accuse the 21-year-old of leading an online group that groomed children aged about 11 to 15 to self-harm in livestreams and then used the recordings to coerce further violence.
- Victims identified so far are from Germany, England, Canada and the United States, with a 13-year-old American reported to have died by suicide during a stream and a Canadian teenager surviving an attempt.
- The suspect was arrested in Hamburg in the summer and remains in pretrial youth detention on Elbinsel Hahnöfersand, with the case assigned to the regional court’s youth chamber that could restrict public access.
- Prosecutors say the tally rose from 123 to 204 as data analysis advanced, while media report the FBI shared leads in 2023 and a former agent has criticized the pace of the German response.