The men, Alois Eglseder and Thiemo Horst Hampel, were detained last September after police raided their apartment and found a number of video cassettes, photographs and slides showing underage girls performing sexual acts, including what the court termed “pathological sexual practices.”
The films are believed to have been shot in the Bohemian sections of the city. Authorities say the men sold and distributed the offensive material on the Internet in Europe, the U.S. and Australia.
Records recovered at the scene indicated that the Germans paid girl as little as $20 and $100 per scene. Police also recovered written contracts signed by the girls containing detailed personal information, including which sexual acts each was willing to perform.
In all, Eglseder and Hampel paid 15 girls under the age of 18 to appear in their films, according to prosecutors, who charged the men with threatening the morals and moral education of the youths.
During court proceedings, all of the girls testified that they had performed voluntarily, but all added they had done so because they were in desperate financial situations.