18 months without fail

Torture victim (14) stabbed: grotesque prison diary

The 15-year-old in the Graz regional court

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

On Thursday, a 15-year-old girl had to stand trial in Graz for attempted murder. In June (when she was still 14 years old), she stabbed a hostile friend in the buttocks. A drastic diary from her time in custody caused a stir at the trial. The girl served a prison sentence.

The story has before and aftermath. As reported, Mila (name changed) was severely maltreated by a gang of girls on February 1. The dramatic occasion: a few days earlier, a police and rescue operation had taken place near the Volksgarten in Graz, during which a 14-year-old had to be resuscitated due to an overdose.

Settlement in a condemned house
Mila was there and had laughed, which is why the 14-year-old's sister and accomplices are said to have decided to give the "until then completely normal girl" a brutal lesson, according to defense lawyer Frank Carlo Gruber.

The later victim Sonja (name changed) had lured them into an ambush with a whole "clan" and harassed them in a condemned house with kicks and punches, set fire to their hair and clothes, forced them to kneel down and undress and threatened them with an iron bar. The scenes are documented in disturbing video footage.

Fatal decision to take the law into her own hands
Mila suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep problems and flashbacks, as confirmed by the psychiatric expert. When weeks and months passed without the perpetrators being brought to justice (no charges have been brought to date, note), the girl, who appeared quite serene in court, decided to take the law into her own hands and "take revenge on Sonja and everyone else", according to the public prosecutor.

With her little sister, her cousin and a knife, she went to Jakominiplatz on June 1st "with the intention of killing Sonja". She met her opponent in a shoe store and demanded an apology from her. When Sonja denied that she had even been present at the settlement in the condemned house, the accused was "very angry" and stabbed her victim hard from behind. She then fled with her sister and cousin, leaving Sonja covered in blood. The three-centimeter-long and four-centimeter-wide stab wound was "potentially life-threatening" according to the expert witness.

"She's incredibly sorry about this"
The now 15-year-old does not deny the assault and pleads guilty on this point. "She is incredibly sorry about the story," says her defense lawyer - but there can be no question of attempted murder: "Who stabs someone in the buttocks when they want to kill someone?" Prosecutor Ines Eichwalder takes a completely different view and refers to the subsequent offenses. On the one hand, during the initial police investigation, it was not she who presented herself as the perpetrator, but her little sister, who at the age of 13 is not yet of criminal age, which those involved "knew exactly". "That's why I can also say that the whole story was planned."

The presiding judge Andrea Schwinger-Wagner

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

The case is made particularly explosive by a kind of diary that the girl kept while in custody. It reveals "the real Mila", says Eichwalder. "I can't even describe it in nice words, the notes mainly consist of swear words", which she uses to describe the judge who imposed the pre-trial detention, her fellow detainees and even her own lawyer. Above all, it shows a clear intention to kill: "Too bad I didn't say that I stabbed that bitch on purpose and wanted to kill her," she says.

Mila's "dustbin"
Defense lawyer Gruber, who according to his own statement is referred to as a "son of a bitch lawyer" in his client's cell pamphlet, questions the admissibility of the recordings as evidence. "In my opinion, they were taken from her unlawfully and placed on file", against which he has also lodged an appeal. The diary was merely "a dung bin for her despair".

After the difficult-to-digest pleadings, the public is excluded from further proceedings and only allowed back in for the verdict. The panel of lay assessors is unable to establish an intent to murder. The 15-year-old is therefore sentenced to one and a half years in prison for intentional grievous bodily harm - not legally binding.