Trier - German judges handed an eight months jail sentence on Monday to a former police officer who heads a paedophile group and is campaigning to make it legal for adults to have sex with children.

An appeal court in the western city of Trier confirmed the term for Dieter Gieseking, 48. He was convicted of circulating on the Internet a document advocating the sexual abuse of children. In March, a lower court sent him to jail, saying he was repeat offender.

Gieseking, who contends sex is good for children, heads a Hamburg-based group called Krumme 13 (the crooked 13) that visits paedophiles in jail and encourages them to continue the practise after release.

A second defendant, a 43-year-old Berlin mathematician with three sons of his own, was given a six-month jail sentence on similar charges on Monday, but it was suspended.

Formerly an officer in the BGS federal police service, Gieseking has given the media interviews to advocate the paedophile "cause" and demand "tolerance". His activities have sent shock waves through German society.

Judges said the offending "autobiographical" paedophile text, ostensibly by an 11-year-old boy describing his first "voluntary" sexual experience, with a 30-year-old man, was clearly pornographic. - Sapa-DPA

Published on the Web by IOL on 2003-09-30 01:03:01