The officer was every football hooligan’s dream copper, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) reports.

Over a period of three years he either totally failed to investigate, or investigated to an unsatisfactory degree, 96 cases, almost of which involved criminality at football matches.

The officer now faces a charge of obstruction of justice while in public office.

The reading of the charges took around an hour, as prosecutors went through each of the individual 96 charges on incidents between 2011 and 2013.

Some of the cases involve fans setting off firecrackers or smoke bombs in VfL Bochum’s stadium, others relate to attacks on opposition fans or police officers.

Prosecutors allege that many of the cases would not have been hard to solve as there was often photographic or video evidence as well as eyewitness testimony.

In one case involving the beating of an 8-year-old boy, the child’s mother had pushed the officer to interview her child, the Rheinische Post reports.

Even then, the officer said that there was little point, because there was no video evidence to back up the allegation.

Most of the cases will now never be solved, say prosecutors, either because evidence has gone missing, or because it is now too late to identify perpetrators.

The 44-year-old officer has been suspended from service and has yet to answer the charges against him.

The judges have called in psychologists to try and understand whether there is a psychological explanation for the man’s behaviour.