Kidnapping of two children in Denmark sparks major German trial

A New Year’s Eve abduction of two children in the Danish town of Gråsten has triggered one of Germany’s largest recent court cases, involving a German beef restaurant dynasty and former intelligence operatives.

At 00:17 on 1 January 2024, as fireworks lit the sky, a 10-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister were forced into a car by masked men at Gråsten Harbour. Their father, Stephan Hensel, was assaulted and knocked to the ground during the attack.

“I turned to tell the children we should head back when I saw five masked men. Suddenly I was on the ground, and they were hitting me. It was a trap,” Hensel said in DR’s podcast Who Kidnapped Our Children?

The children were driven to a forested area near the Danish-German border, forced to cross into Germany on foot in the winter darkness. According to the indictment, their hands were bound, and the girl’s mouth was taped to prevent her from screaming. An audio recording played in court captures the children being urged in English to hurry, while the men speak Hebrew among themselves.

Danish police reached the forest after the kidnappers but too late. The abductors had already crossed the border with the children and escaped in a camper van waiting on the German side.

The case centres on a long-running custody dispute between Hensel and the children’s mother, Christina Block, heiress to the German Block House beef restaurant empire. The couple, once a prominent media pair in Germany, had been locked in conflict over where the children should live.

German prosecutors allege Block ordered the kidnapping. She denies the charges, claiming in court that the abductors acted on their own initiative.

The trial has exposed the operations of private security firms, including Cyber Cupula, whose director, David Barkay, is among those charged with planning and executing the abduction. Barkay, described in Israeli media as a former officer in Israeli military intelligence, has admitted being present but claims he believed he was part of a “rescue operation,” not a criminal kidnapping.

Court documents state that in the months before the abduction, Barkay’s team set up GoPro cameras in the hedge around Hensel’s home in Gråsten, each connected to 18 power banks in dive bags. The cameras streamed live to the team’s Hamburg headquarters. Drones were also flown over the property.

Danish police discovered the cameras in March 2023.

The case has expanded, with German police investigating other security firms, including System 360. According to Der Spiegel, an undercover officer was embedded in the firm, gathering evidence that the operation achieved its goal. System 360’s director is a former German police chief, and its board includes the former head of Germany’s BND intelligence service. Both are under investigation for allegedly being hired to surveil the children and receive orders to abduct them as early as 2022.

The trial is ongoing, with multiple extensions and new, separate cases emerging from the main proceedings.