Rape Trial: 16-Year-Old Acquitted of All Charges

After the presentation of evidence, the jury court came to the conclusion that there had indeed been sexual acts between the accused and the girl in early 2023. However, these were "completely consensual," as the presiding judge emphasized. There were no signs of violence. For the young man, it was "not apparent" that the girl did not agree.

Prosecutor gave no statement after acquittal in rape trial

The panel needed less than ten minutes to reach a verdict. The acquittal is not legally binding. The prosecutor initially gave no statement. The case of the now 13-year-old girl had caused media attention last year. The Vienna public prosecutor's office is investigating more than a dozen underage boys and a 19-year-old for serious sexual abuse of minors (§ 206 StGB), because they allegedly met the girl in Antonspark in Favoriten and subsequently abused her.

The teenager, who had to answer before a jury today, had nothing to do with this group insofar as the girl had approached him in Helmut-Zilk-Park while he was training in the local motor park. She had asked him for his Snapchat, the 16-year-old described. He then saw her two or three more times in the park, but there was never any sexual activity or even intercourse. When he was shown a video apparently circulating among teenagers showing other boys having sex with the twelve-year-old, he deleted her from his contact list: "It was a bad video."

The prosecution had accused the boy of going into a parking garage with the twelve-year-old, where he first kissed her. Then the two are said to have gone to the top floor, where he allegedly asked the girl to undress. He then supposedly grabbed her by the hips, pushed her against a wall, and had intercourse with her. The twelve-year-old did not resist "out of fear and lack of escape options," said the prosecutor.

Defender Sees "Incredible Prejudgment" in Rape Trial

The girl had been interrogated contradictorily during the investigation, which spared her an appearance as a witness in the main proceedings. During this interrogation, she never spoke of violence, explained defender Andreas Reichenbach. He complained of an "incredible prejudgment" of his client, who had been "insulted as a rapist from all sides". The legal representative of the girl, who had joined the criminal proceedings as a private participant, had conducted a "victim staging, as I have rarely seen", he said. The victim's representative had acted "grossly negligent" by stylizing the minor as a victim of an alleged gang rape, which was adopted by some media. The abuse allegations were "partly contrived", Reichenbach maintained. The girl had had sexual contact with about 30 boys, when her then boyfriend found out about this and the fact that there was video material of some of it, a complaint was filed against some of the teenagers. "Out of shame, she said it was not voluntary," Reichenbach explained.

Rape Trial: Defender of 16-Year-Old Presents Chats

The defender presented chats that, in his view, exonerate his client. On May 19, 2023, the boy had sent the girl a message saying "everyone says that you say that..." he had sex with her, in essence. He received the following response: "I didn't. Who says. Well." The defendant - a Syrian who attended primary school in Austria, then four classes of a middle school and is now attending a higher school for economics - denied having sex in the trial: "She must be confusing me." He also denied having demanded oral sex from the twelve-year-old via Instagram at the end of April and in return promised to delete videos showing her in sexual acts. Someone else had used his Instagram account. Moreover, he claimed he did not possess any videos with the twelve-year-old.

Before the video with the contradictory interrogation of the girl was played, the public was excluded. Photographers and cameramen were not allowed in the area of the courthouse where the trial took place - for victim protection reasons, but also to protect the interests of the defendant, who as a minor has a right to non-identifying reporting. Despite this, a newspaper had photographed the teenager, who due to his distinctive hair could probably also be recognized by his surroundings even when pixelated.

(APA/red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.