Posted on 12/31/2009 3:11:53 PM PST by LowOiL
Published: 5 Dec 09 10:56 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091205-23735.html
Supposed spiritual guru Oliver Shanti was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison on Friday, after a Munich court convicted him of 76 counts of child sexual abuse.
Shanti, whose real name is Ulrich Schultz, 61, abused the children of his devotees over a ten-year period, in Munich and then in Portugal, the court found. It handed him a sentence of six years and 10 months.
Judge Stephan Kirchinger criticised the relationship between the children’s parents and Shanti, which he said meant the children found it extremely difficult to tell anyone what was happening.
“There was a kind of dependence between the parents and the accused,” the judge said. He was also critical of the fact that none of the parents voiced any suspicions for such a long time.
The reason for this was to be found in the personal and financial dependency that the parents had on Shanti. He said had this had not been the case, the abuse could hardly have taken place.
Shanti, a new-age musician, founded a commune in a finca in Portugal, where he lived with a group of followers who called him Jesus and Messiah.
Christine Schäfer, prosecutor, said on Friday that Shanti had abused this position, according to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “You bought these children for yourself,” she said. “They had to be available to you at all times of the day and night.”
Shanti was charged with 314 cases of child sexual abuse against two girls and four boys. But only 76 of these cases could be proven in court and the testimony of the girls was not found to be strong enough for a conviction on their complaints. The children were aged between seven and 13 at the time.
He was isolated from the court in a glass box because of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection. The illness is highly contagious and could cause a life-threatening reaction in other people.
Oliver fled the police in Germany and went into hiding for years. Finally he was located but the locals didn't want to part with him (he bribed the locals with gifts like fire trucks and such)...
Finally with enough pressure a raid was organized and he was captured and exported back to Germany to stand trial. He tried to kill himself once but failed.. then an ugly staff infection got hold of him and he had to stand trial in a glass box to keep infecting others in the court room.
He received nearly 7 years sentence... Just about a month for each crime he was convicted on, or just a few days for the over 1000 cases originally brought against him.
But at least there is one less new age weirdo around for a while to hurt children.
"He lived with a group of followers who called him Jesus and Messiah."
Just sad, these people often spit at Christianity yet set up earthly god's in the same vein.
Hopefully his infection will kill him.
A kids’s innocence is worth 1 lousy month? Well now we know.
“Nearly seven years’’ It that supposed to trying to elicit sympathy or something? Raping kids? 1,000 cases!?! This creep ought to be tied to a tree and a flame-thrower turned on him. What kind of stupid, brain-dead, dependent adult allows their children anywhere near someone like this? I’ll never understand cults. And speaking of cults, that goes for the Democratic Party.
Seven Years. That all?
A staff infection sounds pretty horrible, but it's not contagious so I am guessing that it was really a staph infection.
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