He had lured an eight-year-old girl away from a group of children and abused her in a bush, filming the attack with a so-called action cam. The abuse in question had already occurred eleven years ago. On July 15, 2013, summer camp supervisors and a group of 40 children visited a popular water playground on the Danube Island. The defendant is believed to have been hanging around there, specifically looking for potential victims. He finally spoke to an eight-year-old girl and asked her if she had seen the little ducks. When the girl said no, he lured her away from the group into a bush. There he took off her swimsuit, filmed her exposed body and carried out acts of abuse while the camera was running.
“She started to cry and scream for help. Then he taped her mouth shut,” the prosecutor reported to a jury (chaired by Andreas Böhm). Only following he had turned off the camera did the man remove the gag and let the girl go, who ran to the care team and reported what had just happened. Despite an immediate manhunt, the perpetrator managed to escape.
Man had multiple previous convictions
The child molester was tracked down more than ten years later, when the defendant’s house was searched last autumn. He had been caught running a cannabis plantation. The man, who had already been convicted several times – he had served 17 years in Stein Prison for attempted murder – was arrested under the Narcotics Act. During the house search, cannabis plants were seized, as well as a number of electronic devices, data storage devices and the action cam. The camera and an external hard drive contained the original recording of the abuse on the Danube Island and a copy.
The analysis of the other seized storage media also revealed 245,000 image files and 1,700 videos containing material depicting child abuse. When confronted with this, the defendant claimed in court that he had “received” this collection from other inmates in Stein prison.
The 60-year-old confessed to abusing the then eight-year-old. “I was on cocaine and alcohol. That’s not an excuse,” he said. He “somehow got talking to her,” then “superficial touching” happened, he claimed. He “no longer knows exactly how I did it.” When asked whether his sexual desire was directed towards children, he replied: “After his imprisonment, there was a certain inclination, that’s true.” He taped the girl’s mouth shut – “in a panic reaction because she was screaming.”
Released from prison on parole six weeks before the crime
The man had been released from prison on probation at the end of May 2013, just six weeks before the abuse. This long imprisonment was based on a fact that the presiding judge briefly discussed: according to the report, the man had broken into a house at night, tied up a six-year-old boy with a cable, taped the boy’s mouth shut and then stabbed his father with the intent of robbery.
In the end, the defendant was sentenced to a total of four years in prison, taking into account a conviction a few weeks earlier for running the cannabis plantation, for which he had served two years. The sentence was close to the maximum sentence provided for by law. In addition, the 60-year-old was sent to a forensic therapeutic center in accordance with Section 21 Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code because the court psychiatrist called in certified that he was a high risk. Without therapeutic measures accompanying his imprisonment, there would be a “high probability” that he would attack children once more, said Hofmann.
“I’m no longer dangerous”
The 60-year-old did not see the latter. Before his arrest, he had “a partner and a small house in Transdanubia”: “I am no longer dangerous.” He therefore did not accept the verdict, but asked for time to think it over following consulting with defense attorney Daniel Strauss. The public prosecutor did not make any statement for the time being. The verdict is therefore not legally binding.
According to her legal representative, the child molester’s victim, who is now 19 years old, is “not doing well.” When she was confronted with what she had experienced once more last year and was called as a witness, “it was a shock.” The court awarded the young woman, who had joined the proceedings as a private party, 6,000 euros for the emotional pain she had suffered.
