After the alleged rape of a 16-year-old in Neukölln and allegations of a cover-up, the Berlin police are targeting the employees of a youth club and the youth welfare office in the district. A police spokesman told Tagesspiegel that a criminal complaint has been filed. “We are checking which investigations are being initiated against whom and how many people,” he explained.

The youth club and the youth welfare office decided against involving the police despite allegations that sexual assaults and rape had occurred in the facility run by the district office. The district office confirmed this.

The police are investigating eight young people between 15 and 19

According to Tagesspiegel information, the internal language regulation was that the young suspects of Arab origin would otherwise be stigmatized.

The police are investigating eight young people. They are said to be between 15 and 19 years old and were already known to the police – especially with youth group violence.

The alleged main perpetrator was only banned from the youth club after the allegations became known this week.

Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) demanded on Friday that the allegations must be fully clarified. “If it turns out that the rape of a 16-year-old was deliberately covered up out of misunderstood cultural tolerance or party political tactics, there must be consequences,” explained Wegner on the short message service X.

“People who cover up something like that have no place in public office.” There is “no cultural discount for criminals.” The protection of the young woman is now the top priority.

“A shocking scandal”

The federal chairman of the Kurdish Community in Germany, Ali Ertan Toprak, said: “If it is confirmed that employees of a youth facility were more concerned with protecting the perpetrators than the victim, then that would be a shocking scandal.” Anti-racism should not lead to crimes being concealed. “Anyone who looks the other way for ideological reasons leaves victims alone.”

Youth State Secretary Falko Liecke (CDU), who knows the youth club well, suspects that there must have been a radical change there. Liecke was a youth and health councilor in Neukölln for more than ten years.

It is absurd that the Muslim perpetrators are obviously being protected here in order not to stigmatize them, and the victim is left in the lurch.

“People who cover up something like this have no place in public office” Kai Wegner (CDU), Governing Mayor

The Senate Education Administration checks whether everyone responsible has complied with the requirements and implementing regulations for child protection. “The training and further education curricula should be revised for social workers who have been inoculated with a woke trivialization strategy,” said Liecke to the “Berliner Zeitung”.

Allegations have been known for months

According to Tagesspiegel research, the allegations were known to both the state-run youth club and the district office’s youth welfare office for months. Even when the facility, the youth welfare office and even the head of the office found out about the rape allegation at the end of January, those responsible did not call the police or file a criminal complaint.

On the contrary: the youth welfare office consciously decided against informing the police.

According to Tagesspiegel research, the youth welfare office had been informed since late summer 2025 that several girls had complained of sexual assaults in the youth center on Wutzkyallee. The district office had not drawn any conclusions from this.

“I want to see you here every Monday, otherwise I’ll send this to your parents.”

In January 2026, the boys are said to have carried the Turkish-Kurdish student into a back room of the youth club, thrown her onto a couch, took turns lying on her, sexually moving and touching the young person.

Later in January, the girl revealed that she had been raped in the garden of the facility in the evening of November 2025. The then 17-year-old alleged perpetrator is said to have filmed the crime and threatened her: “I want to see you here every Monday, otherwise I will send this to your parents,” reports “Bild”.

According to the report, other boys in the group found out about the video and followed the girl. They are said to have asked to meet the teenager’s 14-year-old sister.

They wanted to “keep the ball flat” and it shouldn’t be called “typical Muslims”.

Although the youth club and, since January 28th, the youth welfare office were aware of the allegations, none of those responsible informed the police. At first nothing happened; several weeks passed because of the winter holidays and vacation time. Afterwards, the youth welfare office actively spoke out against it in mid-February, despite clear indications that the police had to be informed if a crime was committed.

They want to “keep the ball flat” so that the alleged perpetrators are not stigmatized across the board with the statement “typical Muslims”. It should also be prevented that in the event of a criminal complaint, all boys from the youth club are generally suspected by the police.

A police prevention officer filed a criminal complaint

The desperate girl then only managed to reveal herself to her parents with external help. It was only on February 23rd that an experienced police prevention officer from Neukölln, who often deals with sexual harassment among young people and blackmail with cell phone videos, filed a criminal complaint ex officio.

A video interrogation at the State Criminal Police Office was organized for the young person so that she does not have to testify multiple times and is not retraumatized. The police also confiscated the accused’s cell phone.

The Neukölln youth councilor Sarah Nagel (Left), who was only informed about the allegations on March 2nd, describes it as a mistake “based on current knowledge” that no criminal charges were filed. Nagel has initiated an investigation into the incidents and how the youth welfare office dealt with them.