Child Pornography: Victims of Exploitation Struggle to Forget

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/exploited-young-romanians-from-azov-films-videos-traumatized-a-955748.html



The roots of the scandal leading to the resignation of German parliamentarian Sebastian Edathy lie in Romania. In the village of Racsa, boys were filmed naked and the footage sold onward. The shame still haunts them.

Child Pornography: Victims of Exploitation Struggle to Forget
By Maximilian Popp in Racsa, Romania
February 26, 2014 – 05:01 PM



Adrian P. was a child when Markus R. filmed him naked. "My friends and I saw it as a game. Markus promised us that he wouldn't show anyone the films, and he told us not tell anyone about them. Not even our parents," says Adrian P., who is now 19.

Back then, he was 14. Sitting next to him in the living room of his parents' home in Racsa, a village in northern Romania, is his father. His mother is chopping onions in the kitchen. "R. brought shame to my family and our village," says Gheorghe P. "If I ever see him again, I will kill him."

Markus R., from Germany, moved to Transylvania in 2001 to work for a German timber company, according to Romanian media reports. Back home, he had been charged with sexual abuse of children and served a prison sentence. But in Romania, he reinvented himself as a businessman eager to be involved with the community. He gave karate lessons and organized outings for local boys, buying them pizza and lemonade.

Legal Gray Areas

Northern Romania is a poor region. Many children here grow up with absent fathers, who've left to work in Germany or France. "R. was a substitute father," recalls a resident. But once he'd gained the trust of local boys, he began to film them -- playing naked in a wading pool in his home.