In the city of Bielefeld, prosecutors said fears that the child, now 13, might
have been abducted were not borne out: the girl had taken the photos of herself
using a self-timer camera and sent them to a man in an internet chatroom. He
then circulated the images online.
The disclosure, four days after the inquiry was publicized in a TV show about
unsolved crimes, led to calls to keep children out of chatrooms. In the city of
Giessen, prosecutors overseeing the inquiry said the mother gave them the
girl's name, as did schoolfriends.
Prosecutors said they would try to catch the man who had persuaded the girl to
take the seven pictures of herself, but this would be difficult. The girl said
this had happened more than three years ago, she never met the man and did not
know his identity.
