Pedagogue in focus

Suspicion of abuse: New allegations in kindergarten

Around 170 children are cared for in the facility.

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

A teacher at a municipal kindergarten in Vienna-Penzing, who was under criminal investigation until December 2023 in connection with allegations of abuse, is facing new allegations. The responsible municipal department 11 (MA 11) also conducted internal proceedings against him until recently - three days after the case was closed, a child has now spoken about new allegations against the man. These date back to the time before the two lines of investigation began.

The MA 11 confirmed a corresponding "Wien heute" report. Specifically, the allegations are about sexual assault, as the MA 11 emphasized. "One child told another child about it during a play situation," said spokeswoman Ingrid Pöschmann. The assaults are said to have taken place at a time when the man was still working at the facility, according to the spokesperson.

Teacher has not been allowed to work with children since 2021
Until recently, internal child and youth welfare proceedings were underway against him for similar allegations from 2021. "We have therefore reopened the MA 11 investigation and submitted a corresponding statement of facts to the Vienna public prosecutor's office," said Pöschmann in the evening. Pöschmann emphasized that the man had not worked with children since 2021.

First proceedings were only recently discontinued
It was no longer possible to verify the existence of a corresponding statement of facts at the public prosecutor's office late on Thursday evening. The new allegations are certainly explosive. This is because the public prosecutor's office had only discontinued proceedings against the man now accused again and another teacher last December on the basis of allegations from 2021 regarding the suspected sexual abuse of minors and partly on suspicion of deprivation of liberty. According to Pöschmann, the internal proceedings against the man lasted until this year because a "catalog of measures" had to be drawn up. "We asked ourselves what this could look like so that the employee could work for us again."

Public prosecutor's office did not believe the suspicion was substantiated
The public prosecutor's office justified the closure of the criminal investigation by stating that "the questioning of all parties involved and further investigative measures" had not been able to substantiate the suspicion of the crime, as stated in December 2023. The main reason for this was the expert opinion of a psychological expert, who had not been able to establish any suspicious statements in interviews with the children.

The case had caused a stir in 2022. In the course of the case, the management of the municipal kindergartens (MA 10) was also replaced. The city councillor responsible, Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS), was dissatisfied with the crisis management surrounding the suspected case at the time.