6 GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT 23. In January 2003 the Frankfurt am Main public prosecutor’s office opened criminal investigation proceedings against the deputy chief of the Frankfurt police, D., and detective officer E. on the basis of the applicant’s allegations that he had been threatened on 1 October 2002. B. The criminal proceedings against the applicant 1. The proceedings in the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court (a) The preliminary applications concerning the discontinuation of the proceedings and the inadmissibility of evidence 24. On 9 April 2003, the first day of the hearing, the applicant, represented by counsel, lodged a preliminary application for the proceedings to be discontinued. The basis of his claim was that during interrogation and prior to confessing he had been threatened by detective officer E. with being subjected to severe pain and sexual abuse. He argued that this treatment had been in breach of Article 136a of the Code of Criminal Procedure (see paragraph 61 below) and Article 3 of the Convention and warranted the discontinuation of the proceedings against him. 25. The applicant also lodged an alternative preliminary application seeking a declaration that, owing to the continuous effect (Fortwirkung) of the threat of violence against him on 1 October 2002, all statements which he had made to the investigation authorities should not be relied upon in the criminal proceedings. Moreover, the applicant sought a declaration that on account of the violation of Article 136a of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the use in the criminal proceedings of all items of evidence, such as the child’s corpse, which had become known to the investigation authorities because of the confession extracted – the so-called “fruit of the poisonous tree” – was prohibited (Fernwirkung). 26. On 9 April 2003, in response to the first preliminary application, the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s application for the discontinuation of the criminal proceedings. The court noted that in the applicant’s submission, detective officer E. had threatened that a specialist was on his way to the police station by helicopter who, without leaving any traces, would inflict on him intolerable pain the likes of which he had never before experienced, if he continued to refuse to disclose J.’s whereabouts. To underpin the threat, E. had imitated the sound of the rotating blades of a helicopter. E. had further threatened that the applicant would be locked up in a cell with two big “Negroes” who would anally assault him. He would wish that he had never been born. The court found as a fact that the applicant had been threatened with the infliction of considerable pain if he refused to disclose the victim’s whereabouts. However, the court did not find it established that the applicant had also been threatened with sexual