EHalf an hour before his verdict is announced, 53-year-old Philipp M. stands before the court in Lübeck on Wednesday and smokes a cigarette. You can see that a fat man with close-cropped gray hair is in bad shape. Previously, M. represented the prosecutor's office here as a state prosecutor, but now he is threatened with the conviction of a sex offender. Shortly after nine o'clock, presiding judge Helga von Lukowicz entered room 163 and sentenced M. to one year and six months of imprisonment for rape in connection with the serious sexual abuse of a protected person. If the judgment enters into force, M. will lose the status of a civil servant and thus the right to a pension. He must bear the costs of the proceedings.

His crime was detailed in the indictment: On the night of March 27, 2019, Lübeck state prosecutor Philipp M. climbed into his eight-year-old son's bed and sexually assaulted him. She reached into the boy's pajama pants and touched his genitals and also his anus. M. then pushed his penis into the boy's face and forcefully forced him to perform oral sex.

When his wife confronted him about the accusations the next morning, he had no recollection of them. He drove to his office and reported himself to his boss. M. remained on sick leave and later took early retirement. His wife, the mother of his son, divorced him.

The witness wants to recall similar incidents

M. claims that she does not remember what she did with her son. He does not claim to have been conscious at the time of the crime. The defense argued that his client suffered from sexsomnia, a sleep disorder. Affected individuals perform sexual acts with themselves and others even when they are unconscious. When they wake up, they don't remember it.

Earlier on the day of the trial in late January, the ex-partner supported the defense with his testimony. “When I heard about the charges, I remembered similar situations in our relationship that went back about 20 years,” said the 42-year-old witness. During their relationship, they had sex several times while Philipp M. was fast asleep. He called it “sleepwalking sex.” He never asked her about it. At the time, she didn't have the “tool” to talk to him about it.

Judge von Lukowicz calls the testimony of the defense witness unbelievable in the reasons for the judgment. “In our opinion, the events described by the witness did not exist.” The way he handled events was unreal. M. and his ex-girlfriend did not break up, but after the breakup, positive memories of the time spent together often outweighed them. Maybe that's why Ms. M. wanted to help with her application. The witness himself had said that he wanted to give the child an answer to his father's actions.