June 4, 2026, 11:03 p.mJune 4, 2026, 11:03 p.m
Image: keystone
Just like back then, the photos of little Jonathan, in which the ten-year-old looks friendly into the camera, can be seen again in all French newspapers – as well as pictures of the wanted posters that were used to search for the missing man in 2004. The boy was kidnapped from a school camp in western France. His body was discovered a few weeks later, unclothed, in a pond around 30 kilometers away.
Painful 22 years later, the relatives of Jonathan, who could have been the father of small children by now, are sitting in the Nantes regional court opposite the man who the prosecution believes to be Jonathan’s murderer after a circumstantial evidence trial. It is the 55-year-old German serial offender Martin N., who caused fear and terror in northern Germany for around 20 years as the so-called “masked man” and was convicted of triple child murder.
Prosecutors plead for life imprisonment
In the evening at the end of the last day of the trial, the verdict finally comes down. The court finds the defendant guilty and sentences him to life imprisonment, as the newspapers “Le Parisien”, “Le Figaro” and other French media report from the courtroom. There the relatives fall into each other’s arms and tears flow. With its verdict, the court meets the demands of the Attorney General, who emphasized at midday: “I have no doubt that he is guilty.” The day before, the co-plaintiff representing the family came to the same conclusion.
During the trial, the defendant, who came from Bremen, clearly denied involvement in the death of the French boy several times. “I didn’t do that,” he emphasized in his last word. Due to a lack of concrete evidence, the defense pleaded for acquittal.
“Mask Man” convicted of three murders in Germany
In Germany, the “Mask Man” had abused small boys for almost 20 years and murdered three of them aged 8, 9 and 13. Between 1992 and 2001, the educator sneaked into the beds of dozens of victims at night in northern Germany wearing a mask. After a long criminal puzzle, a former victim finally led the police on the trail of the man who was arrested in Hamburg-Wilstorf in 2011. In 2012 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Stade regional court. He had confessed to most of his crimes during his trial. He was transferred from German custody for the new trial in France.
For a long time the man led a double life without anyone becoming suspicious. During the day he looked after his protégés as a carer at holiday camps and in homes. At night he transformed himself into the “Mask Man” – this is how he became known because he hid his face behind a dark balaclava when committing crimes.
One of the perpetrator’s abuse victims ultimately gave the crucial clue. The witness reported to the police after another search call in 2011. He remembered that a supervisor had questioned him about his living situation at a youth camp in a conspicuous meadow – a few months later in 1995 he was abused by a masked man.
French investigators have had Martin N. in their sights since 2008
Since little Jonathan’s case had parallels to the series of crimes in northern Germany, French investigators have been investigating since 2008 whether the serial perpetrator could also be a candidate for the crime in Brittany. However, no concrete evidence such as DNA traces have been found to date.
Between the time of Jonathan’s disappearance and the discovery of his body, a French farmer observed a car with a German license plate near a pond in the evening that apparently wanted to unload something there, but then drove away. The farmer was there with his German Shepherd.
Fellow inmate blames “masked man”
In 2017, a fellow prisoner reported that Martin N. had confessed to him that he had killed a child in France – and also reported a witness who was traveling with a German Shepherd. This was a detail that had never been communicated to the public.
During the trial in Nantes, French and German investigators and psychiatric experts were interviewed, who had questioned the defendant during a temporary transfer to a French prison. In addition, the French witness and the fellow prisoner who incriminated him also testified via video link. The “Mask Man” himself gave comprehensive answers to the court’s questions on several days during the trial – and at the same time gave insights into his disturbing world.
In addition to the Jonathan case in France, the defendant was also suspected of being responsible for the death of the eleven-year-old Dutch boy Nicky in the border area near Aachen in 1998. However, a man who was targeted by investigators during a large genetic test in the region in 2018 was ultimately convicted for the crime. (sda/dpa)