German prosecutors have charged a paediatrician with 130 counts of child sexual abuse and rape allegedly committed over more than a decade at hospitals in the eastern State of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin.
The Potsdam public prosecutor’s office announced the indictment on May 13, saying the alleged offences included aggravated sexual abuse of children and rape. The crimes were said to have taken place between December 2013 and 2025.
Most of the offences are alleged to have been committed while the doctor was working at hospitals in Rathenow and Nauen, two towns west of Berlin run by the Havelland Kliniken hospital group, prosecutors said.
The suspect, who has not been named in line with German privacy rules, has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest in November 2025. Prosecutors cited a risk of reoffending as a reason for keeping him in custody, according to news agency dpa.
The case came to light in January after the mother of a young patient filed a criminal complaint alleging her child had been abused during a hospital visit in Rathenow. Police searches followed, with investigators seizing several data storage devices.
Analysis of that material gave prosecutors strong indications of further victims, leading to the wider investigation that has now produced the 130 charges. The exact number of children affected has not been disclosed.
Havelland Kliniken, which runs several hospitals in the region, said the allegations had undermined patient trust. The group has set up a hotline for people with information and said it would review safeguarding measures across its clinics.
In the case first reported in January, the hospital group acknowledged that its own protocol — which requires a third person to be present during paediatric examinations — had been broken, dpa said.
The Potsdam regional court has yet to receive the case file and declined to comment until it does, a spokeswoman told German media. No trial date has been set.
Under German law, the accused is presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
The scale of the indictment is expected to reignite debate in Germany over safeguarding in paediatric medicine, where examinations are frequently carried out without witnesses. Successive federal governments in Berlin have come under pressure to tighten chaperoning rules and to strengthen background screening for medical professionals working with minors.
At European Union level, member states are bound by the 2011 EU directive on combating the sexual abuse of children, which sets common minimum standards for offences and penalties. The European Commission has repeatedly called for closer cooperation between national police forces and child welfare authorities on cross-border investigations.
