Nightmare scenario

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(Bild: Alexander Schwarzl)

A nightmare scenario took place in Wels in September 2022. A now 33-year-old is said to have lured a then eight-year-old girl to the banks of the River Traun under a pretext, where he allegedly tried to kiss her. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for this on Tuesday at Wels Regional Court.  

"We were just about to see which of us could hold on to the pole for longer when this man suddenly approached us," the then eight-year-old describes in the interrogation video. First he showed the girl and her two friends of the same age tricks. Then came the dark twist: "He told me that he had lost a 50-euro bill earlier and asked me to help him look for it," says the schoolgirl. 

Lured to a remote embankment
After they failed to find anything near the Wels park, the now 33-year-old Afghan lured them further and further to the banks of the Traun several hundred meters away. There, the two went down a remote, stony embankment "because he said that he had been swimming there before and that the money might be there", the eight-year-old explained. 

Girl hugged, kissed, held tight
Instead of continuing his search, however, he tried to kiss the girl, put his arm around her shoulders and repeatedly prevented her from leaving. After some time, she finally managed to break away and first came across a young woman with a small dog. However, she showed little interest, and so an older lady finally took care of the girl. "She seemed calm and strong, but she had a frightened look on her face. You could tell that she had something behind her," said the 77-year-old pensioner. She eventually accompanied the schoolgirl back home, where the police were already waiting. 

Doubts quickly dispelled
The police had discovered the 33-year-old defendant through DNA traces found on cigarette butts at a nearby bank. "He smoked there and drank several cans of beer before he came to us," the student was certain. However, she didn't recognize him from pictures at first. The large mole on the perpetrator's right cheek that she described in the first interrogation also did not match the small mole on the defendant's left eye. During the contradictory interrogation two years after the crime, however, she was undoubtedly convinced that the 33-year-old was the right man.

A total of 30 months in prison
The cigarette butts found were the deciding factor: three of the four cigarette butts seized bore the defendant's DNA traces. The Afghan was ultimately sentenced to 18 months' additional imprisonment for kidnapping a minor, sexual assault of minors and sexual abuse of minors - he had already been sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment in April for aggravated theft from his employer. The young victim was also awarded 1000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering.

"You don't want to think it through"
"You don't even want to think about what would have happened. Picking out a young girl, not even nine years old, in broad daylight in a playground and luring her to an unreasonable place under a pretext is despicable," the judge stated. "Fortunately, the eight-year-old was already a very 'tough' girl at the time with a great grasp of things, who gave several good details very accurately!" The fact that he had asked her for her number and told her about his several (fictitious) pets was also typical of paedophile offenders, the judge emphasized and saw a particularly strong criminal energy in the quiet 33-year-old. The verdict is not yet final.