Shock as two children confess to killing a 12-year-old girl in German town of Freudenberg

The alleged perpetrators are aged 12 and 13, and have been placed under criminal responsibility, said Mario Mannweiler, the senior public prosecutor, at a press conference. Due to their age, and the fact that both of them are not criminally responsible, no further details can be given about the course of the crime, the motive, their behaviour before and after the crime, or their whereabouts.

Because their statements from an initial hearing contradicted the statements of other witnesses, the two girls were targeted by the investigators. At a repeated hearing in the presence of legal guardians and psychologists on Monday 13, they were confronted with the contradictions and finally confessed to the crime. Both girls had not previously been noticed by the police.

Koblenz Police Vice President Jurgen Sus commented: “After more than 40 years of service, there are still events that leave you speechless”. Senior public prosecutor Mannweiler explained that as the suspects are still children, it means that: “no criminal sanctions can be imposed because the law prohibits this”. He pointed out that the two girls are ‘in a protected room in the care of the youth welfare office’.

Expressing his dismay, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wust said: “It pulls the rug out from under you. North Rhine-Westphalia is mourning. It is inconceivable and unbearable that children are capable of such acts. The details described make us shudder”. He added that the authorities would now do everything to fully clarify how this terrible act could have happened.