"What am I doing here?"

Woman stalked for sex – brain tumor allegedly to blame

The accused had followed the victim from the Ottakring subway station to her apartment. With the intention of abusing the young woman ...

(Bild: Hautzinger Peter)

"What am I doing here anyway?", a 36-year-old man is said to have asked himself at the beginning of July 2023 when he followed a young woman in Ottakring to her front door. With the intention of raping her. On Friday, he had to answer to the Vienna Provincial Court. However, he was charged with trespassing and grievous bodily harm.

She had just finished her night shift and was on her way home on the U3 subway when the 36-year-old followed her from the subway station on July 6. He then allegedly waited until the now 23-year-old unlocked the door before pushing her inside, knocking her to the ground and assaulting her. "He sat on me and hit me so hard that I didn't know which way was up and which way was down," she said.

Wanted to silence the victim with blows
The victim screamed loudly for help and offered the stranger money. "He said he only wanted sex," the young woman recalls. The intruder then pushed her onto her bed, fiddled with his trousers, tried to open them and beat her harder when she didn't stop screaming. It was only when he found out how old the victim was that the suspect left the apartment with the question "What am I doing here anyway?", explains Mirsad Musliu, the 36-year-old's lawyer.

Lawyer Mirsad Musliu defends the accused.

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

However, there was ultimately no charge of attempted rape: the public prosecutor's office only charged him with trespassing and grievous bodily harm. He was also found guilty on these charges on Friday.

"Do I have to go to prison now?"
Of the 20 months he was sentenced to, five were handed down unconditionally, while the judge gave him a three-year probationary period for the remainder. "Do I have to go to prison?" wondered the unemployed man from Turkey, to which the judge replied in the affirmative. There was "no room for a fully conditional suspended sentence". Musliu then lodged an appeal. The 23-year-old, who had joined the criminal proceedings as a private party, was awarded 6,810 euros. The verdict is not legally binding.

Man had already noticed victim in the subway
Although more than a year and a half has passed since the incident, the young woman is still suffering mentally from the crime. An expert report found that she suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. She still remembers today that she had actually noticed the stranger on the subway. She even held the front door open for him because she thought he was here to see someone. He got into the elevator with her and went to the next door and waited there until she had unlocked her door. Then he attacked her. 

Brain tumor found in the defendant
The defendant had claimed that he was heavily intoxicated and "coked up" at the time and had made a mistake at the door. His ex-girlfriend lived on the tenth floor of the building in question. However, the 36-year-old could only give the first name of the alleged ex-girlfriend. He could not explain why he knocked the woman to the ground and caused her injuries. His defense lawyer noted that it "cannot be ruled out" that a brain tumor recently diagnosed in his client "was responsible for this action." According to the expert opinion, he was sane and not dangerous at the time of the crime.