Last Wednesday, a German court convicted former Olympic gold medalist Gregor Braun of charges related to child sexual abuse, the Associated Press reported.
Braun, 67, a former Olympic cyclist, was convicted of the sexual abuse of a child, soliciting the production of child pornography, and soliciting serious child sexual abuse in a regional court in Tuebingen along with his co-defendant known only as Yvonne L.
On Thursday, the court announced that Braun was sentenced to 33 months in prison.
According to prosecutors, Braun paid Yvonne to bring her young daughter on “dates” with him for years, starting when the child was only 6 years old. In at least one instance, Yvonne made her daughter record explicit videos of her and Braun, prosecutors alleged. In other instances, Yvonne took sexually explicit photos of the child which she then sent to Braun.
Braun’s case came to light in 2021 after the victim filed a complaint with the police three years after she ran away from home.
The court ruled that the victim is entitled to compensation from both of the defendants in the case.
During the trial, Yvonne made a partial confession and apologized to her daughter. She received a harsher sentence than Braun and will spend 45 months in prison.
For his part, Braun denied the charges against him, saying that he never requested that Yvonne bring the girl with her and maintained that he never wanted the girl present during his trysts with Yvonne, according to the German news agency DPA.
However, the court concluded that the accounts of the victim were credible and said her childhood was robbed from her.
Braun won two gold medals in cycling during the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Before retiring from professional cycling in the late 1980s, Braun also won several World Championships and other track and road races.
The verdicts in last week’s trial can be appealed.
