In the case of assault involving a sports teacher, who allegedly abused several boys aged nine to fourteen years old at a secondary school in Vienna until his suicide in May 2019, victim lawyer Herta Bauer has now appealed to Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens).
In a multi-page letter, Zadic is “urgently asked to recognize the clear need for action on the protection of children and victims, especially in this particular case”.
In the absence of a concrete initial suspicion
Shortly after the teacher’s suicide, the public prosecutor’s office in Vienna dropped the criminal investigation against him. A statement of facts against two possible accomplices of the teacher was pushed aside in early October 2022 due to a lack of concrete initial suspicion. The latter is unacceptable to the Viennese lawyer Bauer, who now assists several victims of the sports teacher.
“Official multi-organ failure”
In her letter to Zadic, Bauer complained of years of “official multi-organ failure”. She puts forward “a long list of omissions and (investigative) errors by the police, the Viennese prosecutor’s office and other institutions/authorities such as the child and youth lawyer and/or the Viennese education directorate” and accuses said institutions of “protecting children and have not put victims first, but, on the contrary, are doing everything possible to ensure that the matter in question ‘finally rests'”.
Recent testimonials reinforce the picture that “a ‘closed loop’ between the school, the education department and the Children and Youth Ombudsman (KJA) has been established in order not to let anything ‘leak out’ from the outside”.
Criticism of the KJA
Bauer has particularly sharp criticism of the KJA. This has “virtually hindered several of our clients in their search for legal protection”. The representative of the victims describes the KJA as a “colossally flawed construction” that makes “illegal and morally reprehensible agreements about the physical integrity of minors”, “apparently does not report any suspicions to the investigative authorities” and falsely creates the impression that “lawyers are actively to be and to provide legal aid”.
Bauer describes the fact that a complaint filed in 2013 against the Viennese educator for alleged abuse “got bogged down” as a “legal scandal” and did not lead to charges against the educator. This allowed the accused teacher to remain unmolested for another six years and commit crimes against the sexual integrity of minors before committing suicide.
“The fact that in a Central European constitutional state a criminal complaint about the suspicion of sexual abuse of a minor can just ‘disappear’ shows with an almost disturbing clarity the importance of victim protection in general and child protection in particular – namely no .” says the victim representative in her letter.
Source: Krone
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