Rapporto Bild: atti di un tribunale turco collegano il sospettato della sparatoria di Stade a precedenti indagini per reati sessuali

According to Bild, the UYAP records contain several earlier criminal proceedings against the same man. The documents describe a suspicion of a serious sexual offense in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş, dated 15 — the report does not specify the month or year. Separately, the same files are said to record an accusation that he sexually abused his own daughter on 9 — again, the date is incomplete in the publicly available summary.

What the Turkish files reportedly show

German investigators have not publicly detailed the suspect's prior criminal history. It is not yet clear whether Turkish authorities shared the UYAP material with German counterparts before the attack, or whether the German prosecution team was aware of the earlier allegations. The Stade public prosecutor's office declined to comment on the Bild reporting when asked, citing the ongoing investigation.

The attack itself has shaken the small Lower Saxon city of Stade and prompted a national debate about security at family and childcare facilities. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is among the officials who publicly condemned the killings in the days following the attack, and the federal interior ministry has announced a review of safety protocols at similar institutions across Germany.

Reactions and ongoing investigation

Bild's reporting was published in cooperation with its parent Axel Springer network and cites documents it says it obtained from the UYAP system, Turkey's publicly accessible judiciary database. The reliability of UYAP-derived reporting has previously been questioned by fact-checking organisations, which note that entries can include both convictions and mere accusations.

The news comes as forensic teams in Stade continue to process the crime scene and as victims' relatives prepare for the first memorial events. Police have said they expect the investigation to take several months and have appealed for any witnesses, particularly from the facility's neighbourhood, to come forward.

Legal experts urge caution

Legal experts interviewed by German broadcasters cautioned against drawing premature conclusions from the Turkish files. A criminal-law professor at the University of Hamburg told ZDF that prior accusations in a foreign jurisdiction do not automatically translate into admissible evidence in a German murder trial, and that defence lawyers would almost certainly seek to exclude or contextualise the material.

For the families of the six victims — five of them children and one a young mother, according to the Stade prosecutor — the new reporting has reopened painful questions about whether the attack could have been prevented. Victim-support organisations in Lower Saxony have expanded their hotline hours in response to the renewed media coverage.