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Topics: Sex and Relationships, Crime, Germany, News, Parenting
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Crime, Germany, News, Parenting
A man has undergone surgery in hopes of avoiding jail for incest crimes he has committed with his younger sister.
Siblings Patrick Stüebing and Susan Karolewski have been fighting the legal system ‘for their love’ for over 20 years in Germany.
The pair have had four children, with two of them having disabilities, and have long insisted they have done nothing wrong in their relationship. Karolewski also has intellectual disabilities.
The couple did not know of each other's existence as Stüebing was raised in foster care, separated from his family, at just the age of three following a violent knife incident involving their late father.
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He was reunited with his mother, Ana Marie, 20 years later and six months after reunited with his biological family, he moved into their home.
After their mother’s death, in 2000, the then 23-year-old continued to live with the then 16-year-old.
The siblings initially mounted a legal fight against Germany's incest legislation in 2001 and brought their case before the European Court of Human Rights in 2012.
Patrick has completed two jail terms for incest-related charges and has previously said he harbors no remorse regarding his relationship with his sister.
According to the German criminal law code, paragraph 173 forbids siblings from having sexual intercourse, and it is punishable by up to two years in prison.
According to an Express report, in hopes of avoiding future jail time and appeasing the courts, Stüebing has gone through sterilization surgery.
He has said: "There is no reason for them to jail me now. I do not want to go back to jail and I know we will never voluntarily leave each other. If anyone doubts our love they should just see we will not be kept apart."
Stüebing said initially when they started sleeping together ‘we didn’t even know we were doing anything wrong’.
He added: “We didn't think about using a condom. We didn't know it was illegal to sleep together. Our mother would not have approved, but the only ones who should judge us now is us."
Susan has also defended their relationship and emphasizing that Patrick was taken from their home at a young age and the pair never shared a childhood together.
Karolewski has said: “We didn't know each other in childhood, it's not the same for us. We fell in love as adults and our love is real. There is nothing we could do about it.
“We were both attracted to each other and then nature took over from us. It was that simple. What else could we do? We followed our instincts and our hearts.”