A German businessman went on trial yesterday, accused of sexual abusing a 6-year-old Irish girl on two occasions in Ireland in 1985 and recording the abuse on videotape. A verdict is expected today.
Dr Andreas Lewicki, a 68-year-old electronics engineer, went on trial in the German city of Ulm yesterday, with his victim, now 23, in attendance.
The court was told how Dr Lewicki opened an electronics factory, Lewicki Microelectronics, in Spollanstown Industrial Estate in Tullamore in 1977.
On June 16th, 1985, the alleged victim was brought to a Dublin hotel by her aunt to meet the accused, whom she had met some months previously in a department store.
Dr Lewicki had helped the aunt out financially and took the two on outings.
According to the indictment, once in the hotel room, the accused began to abuse her sexually.
He filmed the episode, and a tape was shown to the court on Wednesday in a closed sitting.
The second alleged incident happened approximately a month later, when two of the girl's aunts brought her to an apartment or mobile home in the Dublin area.
Again, the episode was recorded on videotape.
The accused was said to have given the girl many gifts and £200 to help pay for her First Communion dress.
He is also believed to have made video recordings of the First Communion ceremony.
The alleged victim, now 23, told the court yesterday that she did not remember the alleged incidents.
However, she positively identified herself from several still images from the videotapes.
Dr Lewicki, born in Leipzig in 1934, admits he is in the videotapes and that the girl in the video-tapes is the alleged victim, but says the acts were consensual.
He told the court in a statement that he wasn't a paedophile, and called the incidents "doctor games".
He said he acted out of scientific interest and wanted to record the reactions of the child. He said the incident was a one-off slip which he deeply regretted.
The accused sold his company a year after the alleged abuse took place but stayed on as a consultant for 18 months. He was arrested in Manila in 1995 and charged with sexual abuse of a minor, but fled the Philippines on bail.
A year later, in September 1996, he was arrested in the Czech Republic and found guilty of a child sex offence.
After inquiries from Czech police, Swiss authorities searched the victim's residence in Zürich and found evidence of child pornography production.
Days later they discovered videotapes in a safe deposit box in a Zürich bank.
The tapes were passed first to German authorities and then to the Garda in Dublin. Irish authorities applied for the extradition of Dr Lewicki to stand trial in Ireland after a 12-month investigation by Det Insp Tom Dixon of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The trial is taking place in Germany as there was no extradition agreement between Ireland and Germany at the time.
The accused is charged with serious sexual abuse and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
