German Court Orders Community Service for 'Forest Boy'
A mysterious "forest boy" who turned up in Berlin in 2011 claiming to have lived in the woods for years was sentenced to perform community service Thursday by a German court.
In a tale that captured the world's imagination, the then teenager appeared at Berlin city hall in September two years ago saying that his first name was Ray and that he had lived in the woods with his father for five years.
Speaking English and only a few words of German, "Ray" claimed to be 17 years old, that his father had died suddenly in August and that after burying him in the woods he walked north for five days to reach Berlin.
But police never found a body and had trouble believing his tale.
After a months-long investigation and an international appeal for clues, "forest boy" turned out to be young Dutch man Robin van Helsum, who had left home without a word.
Van Helsum, now 21, faced charges of defrauding the German social welfare system for telling authorities that he was a minor.
That lie entitled him to thousands of euros' worth of youth benefits over several months in an institution for assisted living where he was assigned a legal guardian.
But Berlin's juvenile district court said Thursday it would throw out the charges against van Helsum if he performed 150 hours of community service and sought therapy.
"The abatement of action was agreed with the consent of public prosecutors," the court said in a statement.
"It however does not rule out any claims for restitution by juvenile services against the accused."
Van Helsum was eventually identified after a friend of his from Hengelo, a city of 80,000 near the German border, recognised a police photo of him and alerted the authorities.
Police then got in touch with his stepmother -- his father had died in the meantime -- and she confirmed his identity.
Source: Agence France Presse
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