A former swimming coach admitted the circumstances of the crime at the start of a process for particularly serious sexual abuse of children - but rejected sexual intentions. The 74-year-old trainer and supervisor of holiday camps issued a statement that he had not acted out of sexual motivation, a spokesman for the Lüneburg Regional Court said on Thursday. It was harmless, the 74-year-old, according to his admission, did not experience any resistance.

The former coach is said to have abused children between the ages of 8 and 13 in 84 cases. According to the indictment, these crimes occurred between July 1996 and 2001 as well as in 2015 and 2016 in Meschede, Porta Westfalica and Horn-Bad Meinberg in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Wathlingen, Lachendorf, Bad Iburg and Bad Lauterberg in Lower Saxony.

Several witnesses were invited to the trial, including some of those affected, the spokesman said. An expert should also be consulted. A total of seven follow-up dates are planned in the process.