Former Olympic gold medal cyclist convicted in German child sex abuse case

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A former champion cyclist who won two gold medals at the 1976 Olympics has been convicted by a German court in a child sexual abuse case. Gregor Braun was found guilty on Wednesday by a regional court in the southwestern city of Tuebingen of sexually abusing a child, soliciting the serious sexual abuse of a child and soliciting the production of abuse imagery in several cases.

He was sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment, the court said in a statement Thursday. During the trial, judges heard that Braun, 67, had for years paid for a woman to bring her young daughter along to sex dates, starting when the girl was 6 years old.

Prosecutors alleged that in at least one instance the 35-year-old woman, who was identified only as Yvonne L for privacy reasons, had forced the daughter to record explicit videos of her or the two adults together. At other times she took pictures of the girl and sent them to Braun, they said.

The case came to light after the victim filed a complaint with police in 2021, three years after running away from home. The court ruled that she is entitled to compensation from the defendants.

The mother, who made a partial confession during the trial and apologized to her daughter, was sentenced to 45 months in prison. Braun denied the allegations against him and said he neither requested nor wanted the girl present, German news agency dpa reported.

But the court concluded that the victim's accounts were credible and said she had been robbed of her childhood. The verdicts can be appealed.

Braun won gold medals in the individual pursuit and team pursuit events at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, several World Championships and numerous other track and road races before retiring from professional cycling in the late 1980s.