On February 27, 2012, Martin N., known as "Maskenmann", was sentenced to life imprisonment. Masked, he had broken into school camps, camps and private homes at night to abuse boys. He killed at least three.
The boys that Martin N. killed were eight, nine and 13 years old. The key clue to his arrest came from an abuse victim after years of fruitless investigations. The man recalled being quizzed by a caregiver years earlier about what his home looked like. Shortly thereafter, in the middle of the night, a large "black man" stood next to his bed. The victim also remembered the attendant's name:Martin.
In 2012, the district court of Stade sentenced Martin N. to three counts of murder. In January 2021, he was temporarily extradited to France for a possible further crime. French prosecutors have accused him of kidnapping and murdering a 10-year-old boy in Brittany in 2004.
Murders intended to cover up Martin N.'s sexual preferences
The crimes of the child killer always followed the same pattern:masked with a black balaclava, Martin N. broke into residential buildings, camps and school camps in northern Germany and there he assaulted boys. He murdered three of his victims, eight-year-old Dennis R., 13-year-old Stefan J. and nine-year-old Dennis K., between 1992 and 2001. According to the court, he killed the boys in order not to expose his sexual preference for boys . "In particular, he feared his mother's ostracism," said judge Berend Appelkamp at the time. "He wanted to prevent this disclosure at all costs."
The child killer leads a double life
When he was arrested in 2011, the then 40-year-old Martin N. was living in Hamburg.For years, the investigators had been on the trail of a man who they temporarily believed to be a phantom:investigators and caregivers doubted the children's statements about the "black man". Martin N. led a double life during this time. During the day he looked after his protégés as a supervisor on holiday camps and in homes, even a foster child lived with him for four years. According to Appelkamp, however, these children were not the object of his desire because he felt responsible for them. On the other hand, N. maintained a secret nightlife in which he lived out his pedophilic tendencies.
"Words fail"
The testimonies of the victims during the trial had left the courtroom with sheer horror. "It's just so terrible what the indictment is about here that the words fail you," said senior public prosecutor Johannes Kiers at the time. The accused himself followed the hearing on all days of the trial, apparently apathetically. He remained stubbornly silent and only spoke up on the last day of the hearing:"I believe that my actions can hardly be excused," said Martin N. Nevertheless, he expressed the hope of being able to start a new life in freedom.
Acts of "serious mental abnormality"
In 2012, the judges also ordered Martin N. to be held in preventive custody - but the BGH reversed the decision.When the Stade district court sentenced the then 41-year-old on February 27, 2012 to three counts of murder and sexual abuse in 40 cases, the judges also ordered the subsequent preventive detention:In their reasoning, they stated that the guilt was particularly serious. The deeds are "particularly reprehensible" and of "serious mental abnormality". An expert also assesses N. as "at risk of recidivism". However, the BGH lifted the preventive detention ordered at the time a year later. In this case, the custody was "no additional benefit for the general public," according to the Karlsruhe judges in 2013 - but at the same time they confirmed the particular gravity of the guilt. An extension of the minimum detention period of 15 years is therefore likely.
Another fatality? Delivery to France
On January 20, 2021, Martin N. will be taken from Celle Prison to Offenburg JVA (Baden-Württemberg), from where he will be extradited to France for another possible crime:in April 2004 he is said to have kidnapped and killed a boy in Brittany to have. The child had disappeared from a school camp near Saint-Nazaire on France's west coast during the night. His body, bound and weighted with stones, was discovered weeks later in a pond near Guérande - about 25 kilometers from the place of his abduction. Martin N. is said to have confessed to a fellow inmate.
The French investigators Martin N. were apparently unable to prove the crime within the delivery time, which was limited to eight months. According to information from "Spiegel", he was returned to the German judiciary in September 2021 - but investigations will continue in France.