German gets six years in prison for child pornography and abuse in Bruges

On April 3, 2022, the Bruges police checked a suspicious car with German license plates in Sint-Kruis, Bruges. A fourteen-year-old boy sat on the lap of Matthias S. (45). Thanks to further investigation of the defendant’s computer, an Austrian also came into the crosshairs of the investigators. Hartwig G. (67) stayed in a hotel room in Roeselare and was arrested a few weeks later. He will receive an effective prison sentence of 37 months.

They have both been in custody ever since. The investigation showed that the facts in Bruges involved grooming. S. had won the boy’s trust to be able to abuse him, although he was eventually acquitted for assault.

Fake profile

In addition, the German posed online as a young girl from Kortrijk. Using that false profile, he convinced boys aged twelve to seventeen to send him explicit images of themselves. A total of 28 Flemish boys could be identified, but a USB stick of the defendant even contained 66 names of possible victims.

Matthias S. forwarded the explicit images to Hartwig G., who was also guilty of possessing and distributing child pornography.