Young girls were sexually abused at a campsite in a small town in western Germany for years. Child services looked the other way and the police let evidence disappear. Now the case is up in court.

Cardinal George Pell has taken his case to the country's High Court, his last avenue of appeal. He is currently serving a six-year sentence for abusing two boys in the 1990s.

In one of the largest child sex abuse investigations in recent years, some 30,000 potential suspects could be tied to a case in western Germany. Here are some of the key questions and answers.

Child sex abuse offenders are "taking advantage" of the coronavirus pandemic to make and share more abusive material online. That warning from Catherine De Bolle, head of European law enforcement agency Europol. In an interview with FRANCE 24, she explains that with millions of children at home, many are going unsupervised, using outdated and poorly secured software which leaves them at greater risk from exploitation.

Malka L., a former school principal, is set to be deported to stand trial for 74 charges of child sex abuse. The decision follows a contentious, six-year legal battle.

The investigation, sparked by a tip from US authorities, led to 17 arrests and more than 800 charges being laid. Police say the suspects had ties to alleged offenders in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia.

Is there a right age of consent? A bill introduced in the French parliament would set the minimum age at 15 for consensual sex with an adult. The law here bans sex with a minor, but that carries a much lighter sentence than in Anglo-Saxon countries where it's automatically considered statutory rape. Why not here? Child sex abuse is an abuse of power, mighty adults imposing their will on minors. The issue's been brought to a head in France by some recent high-profile cases.

German police say they are investigating more than 1,600 people from multiple countries on suspicion of possessing or sharing images of child sex abuse. Many of the suspects are themselves children.

"NeuralHash" technology makes it possible to detect child sex abuse images uploaded to the cloud. Privacy advocates fear technology invites political mission creep, especially in authoritarian states.

Pope Francis expresses his personal shame and that of the Church at the sexual abuse of children by French Catholic clergy, and offers the victims his prayers, after the scale of the problem was laid bare in a devastating report. An independent commission revealed earlier this week that French Catholic clergy sexually abused around 216,000 minors over seven decades since 1950, calling the scandal a "massive phenomenon" that was covered up by a "veil of silence".

Germany's crime rate has fallen for the fifth year in a row, down by nearly 5% in 2021 alone. Still, online crime and the distribution of images of child sex abuse are on the rise.

Nasson Joaquin Garcia, the head of the evangelical church La Luz del Mundo, pleaded guilty to three charges stemming from the abuse of three underage victims.