"I love driving"

Vienna: Dangerous boy (15) apparently cannot be stopped

The 15-year-old in the Vienna provincial court on Wednesday.

(Bild: Anja Richter, Krone KREATIV)

Are child and youth welfare services powerless when it comes to setting boundaries for a 15-year-old with a criminal record who has been in their care for ten years? For months, the boy drove cars without authorization and sped through Vienna at speeds of up to 140 km/h. When the police stopped him, he threatened to carry out a terrorist attack: trial.

"I often drive cars just like that. I love driving," says the 15-year-old in the disturbing trial in Vienna's regional court. The boy is no stranger to the gray house. He was already convicted on June 13. At that time, the 14-year-old first defendant had been committed to an institution for torturing a girl in the shared flat. The co-defendants, including the 15-year-old, did not intervene but filmed the incident.

Car put into operation nine days after conviction
The "joyrides" that the young people take in their unlimited free time with open cars were already a topic at the trial in June. Just nine days after the aforementioned conviction, on June 22, the 15-year-old started up a vehicle again. The list of unauthorized car start-ups that took place between then and his arrest is long. And, as expected, it ended ingloriously.  

Lawyer Roland Friis is representing the 15-year-old.

(Bild: Peter Tomschi)

On August 16, he is said to have sped away from the police at 140 km/h in a VW Polo with three teenage passengers at the Donauzentrum in Kagran, with which he finally collided. "A bit dizzy," is how the experienced juvenile court judge Daniela Zwangsleitner puts it. When the officers arrested the Austrian, he shouted: "I'm going to carry out a terrorist attack with my Chechen brothers and blow up a police station."

The chase began on August 16 at the Donauzentrum in Vienna.

(Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)

No regular daily structure
"I said that out of anger," the young man claimed during the trial. He doesn't seem to be aware that he is putting people at massive risk with his trips. His life is characterized by setbacks. At the age of five, he was placed in a residential community for children and young people. He has to move five times. There seems to be hardly any structure in the current shared flat. The young people are sent out in the morning and can come back in the evening.

I'm going to carry out a terrorist attack with my Chechen brothers and blow up a police station.

Der 15-Jährige, als er von der Polizei gestoppt wurde.

The guy doesn't have a school-leaving certificate. "What do you do all day when you're out there?" Mrs. Rat wants to know. The 15-year-old shrugs his shoulders. He dropped out of psychotherapy, which he should have attended after his last suspended sentence and which the justice system is paying for. He also did not attend other support appointments. "No time because you've been driving around all the time?" Zwangsleitner is also at a loss as to what to do next with the defendant. 

Return to the shared flat
The prison sentence was instructive for him, the young man says. "No one came to visit me except my probation officer," he reports, before he is sentenced to twelve months of partial imprisonment, four of which are fixed.

The 15-year-old will soon be back on the streets of Vienna completely unaccompanied. It is quite possible that the boy or his friends will soon get into an unlocked car again and thus become a danger to people traveling in Vienna.