More details were released on Thursday about the assault on a sports teacher who allegedly assaulted more than two dozen boys aged 9 to 14 at a secondary school in Vienna. The Vienna Basketball Association (WBV) had already removed a possible accomplice from circulation in 2019, after he had not kept an agreement that the WBV had made with him with the intervention of the Vienna Children’s and Youth Ombudsman (KJA). It has since been announced that the investigations in the case will be expanded.
The possible accomplice – a former teacher who had to drop out of school due to accusations of assault and subsequently found work at the WBV – had been taken by a sports teacher to a Viennese sports club, where he worked as a basketball coach. In this position, he was physically “unreasonably close” with boys, WBV chairman Thomas Holzgruber said in an interview with the APA on Thursday afternoon. Holzgruber said he heard about it “from the basketball scene, from coaches,” but not from the club itself.
appointment made
According to information from the APA, the ex-teacher, who trained male minors, would have “helped” the boys to change clothes in the cloakroom and take a shower, among other things. In December 2018, an agreement was reached with the trainer, together with the Ombudsman for Children and Youth (KJA), which stipulates, among other things, that he will stop his “emergency services” in the cloakroom, no longer seek physical contact and no longer train children under the age of 14. and contact with young people only took place in the club.
“No hard evidence”
In return, a complaint was initially waived — with the child and youth prosecutor’s knowledge and consent, as Holzgruber emphasized. This was confirmed by KJA head Ercan Nik Nafs to APA. There was “no solid evidence of obvious criminal misconduct,” Nik Nafs said. The trainer also committed to go into therapy with the men’s counselling. The colleague turned out to be a sufficient package of measures.
Submit documents to the police
However, the coach did not keep to the agreement made. “He didn’t go to men’s therapy and also trained among 14-year-olds,” Holzgruber reported. The club has been informed of this. “With no further charges against the association, the documents available in the basketball association have been turned over to the police for further investigation,” Holzgruber said.
Documents did not reach the public prosecutor’s office
The club was ordered not to employ the man as a trainer, not even with children older than 14 years. The man was subsequently banned from all basketball activities. “Since then, he has disappeared from the scene,” said the Viennese WBV chairman. Every step was agreed with the Vienna Ombudsman for Children and Youth. For whatever reason, the documents handed over to the police did not find their way to the Vienna public prosecutor’s office.
As authority spokeswoman Nina Bussek explained at the request of APA, there was a preliminary investigation against the man in 2016, when it dealt with the allegation of sexual coercion in the school area. According to the Public Prosecution Service, this procedure had been discontinued, the crime on which the investigation was based was not threatened with a judicial sanction and further prosecution of the suspect was inadmissible for legal reasons.
There have been no investigations since then – until last Monday, when a victim’s lawyer made a statement of fact against the man and another suspect, who is now under investigation, Bussek explained.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
