Germany: Police officer guilty of not pursuing future killer

A Bavarian court has sentenced a police officer to five months in prison, commuted to three years’ probation plus a donation to a victims’ organization, for failing to launch investigations against a man accused of attacking his girlfriend with a knife in August 2024.

Five months later, the same individual went on to kill a young child and an adult, wounding three other people, while attacking a kindergarten group in a park in Aschaffenburg with a knife.

The 29-year-old officer was convicted on charges of obstruction of justice, with prosecutors arguing that his failure led to there being no criminal investigation of the Afghan national, whose trial began earlier this month.

Read more: DW