On the morning of 1 October 2002, a police officer in Frankfurt threatened the suspect Magnus Gäfgen with massive Schmerzen, severe pain, if he did not reveal where a kidnapped child was. The officer acted on the order of the deputy police chief, Wolfgang Daschner.
On 9 April 2003 the Frankfurt Regional Court ruled that Gäfgen’s earlier statements could not be used, under Section 136a of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The court still allowed the physical evidence. At the trial Gäfgen confessed again, after he had been told that his first confession could not be used. On 28 July 2003 he was sentenced to life. The verdict rested mainly on the new confession.
In December 2004 Daschner and the officer were convicted and given a warning, with their fines held in reserve. In 2010 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the threat was inhuman treatment, and that the trial had still been fair.