Berlin archbishop as a witness in the abuse process

The plaintiff demands 830,000 euros

Did church superiors know about years of abuse?

The case shakes Cologne: A woman demands 830,000 euros after years of abuse. Now a prominent witness could take care of the turn.

As part of a lawsuit at the Cologne district court, Archbishop Heiner Koch is to testify as a witness on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Archdiocese confirmed this to the German Press Agency. “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, “Tagesspiegel” and Domradio had previously reported on the planned testimony.

The background is the lawsuit of a 58-year-old woman who demands compensation for 830,000 euros from the Archdiocese of Cologne. The plaintiff was the foster daughter of a priest who was sentenced to twelve years in prison in February 2022. The Cologne district court had found that from 1993 to 2018, the man had seriously sexually abused nine girls. The foster daughter was already victims of the acts in the 1970s and 1980s. The perpetrator has now been released from the cleric stand.

Koch, now 70 years old, was a young priest in the Archdiocese of Cologne at the time of 1980. According to information from the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, the court would like to know from him whether he can confirm the applicant’s statements. This had stated that he had overnight the ceremony in the perpetrator’s rooms in the priestly seminar.

The Archdiocese of Cologne rejects the demand for co -liability for the priest’s deeds. At an earlier trial, the presiding judge Jörg Michael Bern also approved this position. “There is a separation between the exercise of office and other action,” he explained. The permission to accept the applicant as a foster child was a decision by the youth welfare office.