A 63-year-old Iranian asylum seeker was arrested in the German town of Öhringen after being accused of sexually molesting three young children including a seven-year-old boy.
The incident, which occurred on Sunday, is said to have occurred at a public swimming pool in the town where the 63-year-old sexually harassed two girls aged nine and eleven as well as the seven-year-old boy. According to reports, the man is said to have touched the seven-year-olds genitals for several minutes while in the swimming pool, German tabloid Bild reports.
Staff at the pool were alerted to the man’s activities after three bathers witnessed the incident and the children told their parents what the man had done to them. The pool staff immediately forced the man out of the pool and made him get dressed.
Police were called and arrested the man at the scene. Officers are now pursuing an investigation and potential charges of sexual abuse of a child.
Swimming pools in Germany and Austria have become a haven for sex attacks, often committed by asylum seekers or recently arrived migrants. Several cases have also involved the sexual molestation of young children.
In one case earlier this year, a 42-year-old Syrian man was arrested in the Austrian capital of Vienna after being accused of sexually molesting a 10-year-old girl. In 2016 there were several cases of migrant sex attacks in swimming pools including the abuse of several girls aged between 12 and 13 in Essen and the abuse of several young girls by underage migrants in Berlin.
A leaked internal report from the city of Düsseldorf last year claimed that sex abuse cases taking place at swimming pools had dramatically increased. “In particular, offences of rape and sexual abuse of children in bathing establishments is significant,” the report said.
As a result of the migrant sex attacks, some pools attempted to ban asylum seekers from their facilities like the swimming pool in Bornheim last year. The management was faced with a massive backlash from left-wing activists and ended the ban only days after announcing it.