Harmful Situations in Child Custody: Prospective Stepmother as Escort?

From Client to Love Interest?

At Christmas 2015, Mr. Laußig introduced his parents to his new girlfriend: Ms. Wójcik from Poland – later the target person of our Leipzig detectives. When asked how they met, the newly formed couple quickly became inconsistent. Mr. Laußig’s father then pulled his son aside and asked him in private what was going on, but he dodged an honest answer. In the end, it became clear, without being stated explicitly, that Ms. Wójcik had worked as a prostitute and that Mr. Laußig had met her as a client. How it then came about that a relationship between service provider and customer turned into a living arrangement was not explained further.

 

Since Mr. Laußig shared custody of two children from his marriage with his current wife, Ms. Wittenberg, a client of Aaden Detective Agency Leipzig, and since, despite the separation, she continued to maintain a very good relationship with her former in-laws, Mr. Laußig Sr. took the opportunity after the conversation with his son to pick up the phone and inform Ms. Wittenberg that he was worried about the new girlfriend and did not want to believe that she had stopped “working” because of the relationship with his son. Our client had never exactly been a great fan of prostitution anyway, since Mr. Laußig’s tendency to cheat with prostitutes had been a main reason for the failure of the marriage. She was seriously concerned about leaving her children (6 and 9 years old) in a household where a prostitute lived and might exert a morally or even medically harmful influence. In addition, she had doubts about the motives and authenticity of the supposed love between the prostitute and her ex-husband – factors that could also affect the alimony payments Mr. Laußig was obliged to make. Consequently, she commissioned our private detectives in Leipzig to investigate the suspicion raised by her former in-laws.

Collection of Facts: Places of Residence, Employment Relationships

At the beginning of the investigation, the research team of Aaden Detective Agency Leipzig had only Ms. Wójcik’s full name available. Since it is a very common Polish name, the date of birth had to be determined before a more precise search for any links between the target person and the prostitution milieu could begin, and our researchers were able to verify at the same time that a person with the target person’s name and additional matching details really did exist, meaning that at least in this respect Mr. Laußig Jr. had told the truth.

 

Based on these findings, it was possible to compile a list of places of residence over the last sixteen years as well as to review employment relationships and self-employment. Our detectives in Leipzig found that the target person was, first, not registered in Leipzig but in Bavaria, and second, had a business registered for a hairdressing and cosmetic salon. However, a check at the registered business address showed that the shop had no longer existed for several years. According to the doorbell and the property management of the residential building, Ms. Wójcik was in fact living at her registered address in Bavaria. Whether she was actually there could only have been determined through surveillance; however, based on the limited suspicion available up to that point, there would not have been sufficient legitimate interest to justify such an intrusion into the target person’s personal rights. Ms. Wójcik had never attracted police attention.

Online Research: Connections to an Escort Service

Internet research conducted by Aaden Detectives Leipzig revealed a possible connection between the target person and an escort service from nearby Dresden. When reviewing the provider’s website, a subpage listing the “models” was noticed, where images could be viewed for each one. However, the faces were mostly pixelated, making identification of the target person impossible. Ms. Wójcik’s Facebook profile was publicly viewable, but at first glance it showed nothing suspicious: ordinary photos, ordinary posts. Only a look at the friends list caused some surprise, because it consisted overwhelmingly of men, some of whom showed themselves half-naked in their profile pictures – it was not impossible that these were clients with whom the target person was in contact via Facebook.

 

Our Leipzig private detectives then also came across an Instagram profile of the target person that had been inactive for some time, showing her in lascivious poses and providing images from the field of erotic photography. One of these photos apparently came from the same set as the previously mentioned pixelated images on the escort service’s website. A renewed comparison of these photos with the target person’s Instagram image revealed a strong resemblance to two of the advertised women.

Private Detective Meets Escort Women

To find out whether one of the two possible escort women was Ms. Wójcik, Aaden Detective Agency Leipzig arranged an accompanying appointment for a meal with the model who seemed to resemble her more closely. However, when the assigned investigator met the woman, it turned out that she was also Polish, but not the target person. Thus our detective had to endure an hour of conversation in a restaurant that progressed extremely slowly due to the woman’s lack of German and English and yielded no useful information. To be certain, Aaden Detectives Leipzig also arranged an appointment with the second model, and indeed – Ms. Wójcik appeared. She made a very friendly and open impression, chatted freely in perfect German about herself and her private life, and revealed, among other things, that she was single and had been doing the job for six years – initially as a side job, but by then it was enough to cover her monthly expenses.

 

Thus, our private detectives from Leipzig succeeded in proving prostitution. However, prostitution is not a criminal offense in Germany, although a negative influence on children should nevertheless be obvious. Accordingly, at the advice of Ms. Wittenberg’s lawyer, Aaden Detective Agency Leipzig was to determine through surveillance whether and how the target person came into contact with the client’s children.

Surveillance During Childcare

The review of custody arrangements and childcare in the father’s household was to take several weeks, partly through spot checks and partly through full-day surveillance. In doing so, Aaden Detective Agency Leipzig established the following facts:

 

• Ms. Wójcik lived permanently in Mr. Laußig Jr.’s house and was there even when he was not present.
• She regularly went out, preferably in the evening, and visited private apartments and hotels or met unknown men in public.
• From time to time, she received male visitors in Mr. Laußig’s apartment – but only when he was not at home.
• She used a mid-range vehicle financed by Mr. Laußig but registered in her name.
• When the two children of Ms. Wittenberg and Mr. Laußig were with their father, he was often not at home, presumably because he had to work. During that time, Ms. Wójcik took care of them, but repeatedly left the children alone for several hours or entire nights when she visited clients.
• No clients were received in the apartment when the children were present.

In the end, Aaden Detectives Leipzig handed their client, Ms. Wittenberg, and her lawyer the court-admissible investigative report and concluded the assignment by mutual agreement.

Notice

For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations and certain personal details have been altered without changing the substance of the actual events.

Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Leipzig

Brünner Straße 10

D-04209 Leipzig

Tel.: +49 341 3549 012-0

Fax: +49 341 3549 012-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-leipzig.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-leipzig.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824