Penzinger Kindergarten – Allegation of abuse: further proceedings halted

The man and another employee of a kindergarten in Vienna-Penzing were already under criminal investigation until December 2023. In February 2024, statements from a child – according to Magistrate Department 11 “in a play situation with another child” – about suspected abuse led to a new criminal investigation against one of the two kindergarten employees. The Public Prosecutor’s Office then examined a corresponding statement of facts from MA 11.

The proceedings were stopped “due to lack of evidence of guilt”.
As it has now become known, the procedure was stopped in April of this year “for reasons of evidence due to lack of proof of guilt,” explained spokeswoman for the authority Nina Bussek. It was said that no further investigation was pending. A spokeswoman for MA 11 explained that the internal monitoring process by the Vienna Child and Youth Welfare Service has now been completed.

MA 10 said in response to an APA request that the employee affected by the latest investigations and the case that was dropped in December no longer works in child protection. No further details were provided regarding data protection.

Criticism of crisis management
The Penzinger kindergarten case first caused a stir in May 2022. In the course of the case, the management of the city kindergartens (MA 10) was also replaced – also due to dissatisfaction on the part of the responsible city councilor Christoph Wiederkehr about the crisis management surrounding the suspected case.