Johannesburg -
Alleged paedophile and former Randburg priest Georg Kerkhoff declined to plead when he appeared in the Krefeld court near Dusseldorf in Germany on Friday on paedophile charges.
He faces 26 charges of child abuse.
According to Express Dusseldorf, a German online publication, the 56-year-old had allegedly sexually abused young boys since 2001 in his parishes in the Lower Rhine.
The prosecution detailed the charges against him and he described his “life situation”, but did not plead guilty or not guilty, according to Christian Tenhofen, court spokesman.
Under German law Kerkhoff was not obliged to plead.
The children, the alleged victims, will give evidence in camera when the case resumes next week. Judgment was scheduled for February 6, Tenhofen said.
Kerkhoff allegedly used alcohol, drugs, sex toys and a parish sauna while molesting boys in Germany. When the allegations surfaced, the Catholic diocese in Germany shipped him to South Africa, where he was later accused of abusing five children at a First Communion camp in Brits, in 2008.
Last year, the case against Kerkhoff in Brits, North West, was withdrawn on condition that he was extradited to Germany by Interpol.
- Saturday Star