A victim of abuse by a physical education teacher, who allegedly abused more than 40 boys aged nine to 14 at a secondary school in Vienna until his suicide in May 2019, is now seeking compensation from the Republic of Austria. In a letter to the Finanzprokuratur, the former student demands at least financial compensation for the mental and psychological damage suffered and the resulting impossibility of working as a top athlete.
The traumatic attack had shattered the boy’s dreams of a career as a professional footballer. He had mainly attended the secondary school in question because it had a cooperation agreement with FK Austria Vienna at the time. The boy was considered very talented – he already had a young professional contract with a local first division club in his pocket. There he trained together with prominent kickers and dreamed of an engagement abroad. “But I had to end my football career because of the psychological stress after the abuse,” the young man described in an interview with the APA last October.
Almost 800,000 euros demanded
To this day he can only exercise a profession to a limited extent. He requires medication and is under ongoing psychiatric treatment. For what happened to him, he is now claiming 50,000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering and 740,000 euros in lost earnings for the career in professional sports that has been taken away from him.
Attack during reading night at the gym
The young man had been assaulted by his physical education teacher – a serial killer – during a so-called reading night in the high school gymnasium. The abuse led to traumatization and the victim could not talk about the abuse until many years later – after the perpetrator committed suicide. He also reported this. Over time, the young man developed several serious mental illnesses that were diagnosed by a specialist.
School did not act
In her letter to the Finanzprokuratur, his legal representative Herta Bauer points out that the abuse took place in the school and that the school management and the education department should have removed the teacher long ago because of other abuses by the teacher in the past. The institutions should have known “of the real and imminent danger” for the students, but failed to take appropriate measures. According to Bauer, the criteria for liability under the Civil Servants Liability Act have been met.
Source: Krone
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