Mobile phones and hard drives full of horrible images – children as victims. A team led by Manuela Müllner has to constantly analyze this kind of data. A grueling job for the detectives.
Florian Teichtmeister. His cell phone and his 58,000 pictures of kids on it. The (acting) curtain has fallen for him. But irreverent as that may sound, the 43-year-old is just a “fish” in the child porn swamp. There was one civil servant (government service) with one and a half million photos on his hard drive, the next with 3.2 terabytes (more than 2.2 million standard floppy disks!).
What Manuela Müllner has to deal with every day in her work as a prevention officer for the Viennese police is sexual abuse and physical violence against children. She has wide awake, bright green eyes. Eyes that also reflect the cases of thousands of victims. Müllner has been active in the field of child protection for ten years. She has interviewed more than a thousand children – some as young as three or four years old, others as young as fifteen. “Unfortunately, sexual abuse is part of everyday life,” says Müllner.
Extensive questions about the crime were initially taboo
In the interview with “Krone” she talks about her incredible day job: the “sleazy, disgusting offender” is rare. “That’s not the reality. Many children love the abuser, love them.” Father, stepfather, uncle, mother’s friend. Encouraging the “victim” to speak requires a special environment. Not an interrogation room, but an apartment. Colorful, bright, full of toys.
Detailed questions about the crime are taboo at first. “The conversation starts with an open question,” says Müllner. Words just come from most of the victims. “First the children are relieved, then the deep crisis follows.” Especially with long-term abuse, the confrontation with the crime destroys the child’s reality. “Then we have to ask very detailed questions. Quasi: who penetrated whom, how and how often. In between we encourage the children a lot: ‘You’re doing a good job. You should be proud to say that.”’ Constructed lies (often in the case of parental divorce) cannot sustain the small victims.
Ads more than tripled within ten years
The fate of the children accompanied Müllner home. Yes, she does therapy. Jürgen Ungerböck, chief investigator at the Federal Criminal Investigation Department, leaves behind what he saw and what happened as soon as he goes through the turnstile of the Federal Criminal Investigation Department. The 49-year-old has been involved in the horrific acts against children for 15 years. Together with his team, he traces perpetrators and helps the victims. “At a certain point I no longer see the abused child. Only the child I want to identify.
A grueling job that brings more work from year to year: A small excerpt from the sober statistics: there were 572 reports of “pornographic images of minors” in 2012 – last year there were 1921! The number of videos has grown with technology. Ungerböck: “It’s like ‘coffee to go'” – the smartphone is the negative game changer! In any case, the two detectives agree: “There are perpetrators everywhere. It’s amazing what people are capable of.”
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
