Minor abused

“I didn’t care about the age”

The defendant at Ried/Innkreis Regional Court

(Bild: Daniel Scharinger, Krone KREATIV)

For years, a 59-year-old man from Innviertel is alleged to have solicited underage girls for sexual acts in online chats. He also allegedly paid a chat partner in the Philippines to penetrate a 12-year-old girl on camera. He must serve four years behind bars for this.

In court, the 59-year-old confessed to all charges and the list of accusations is long: he allegedly asked underage girls via SnapChat to satisfy themselves and send him pictures of it X times. During the chats, he also allegedly pleasured himself and sent pictures of it to the young chat partners.

35 euros for sexual acts
The man from Innviertel also contacted chat partners in the Philippines and asked them at least twice to perform sexual acts on young girls (11, 12 years old) in front of the camera. 35 euros are said to have been paid for this. The 59-year-old was very active on relevant chat portals. However, users can also be blocked there for inappropriate behavior - this block was imposed 542 times in the current case.

Civil servant status "shaky"
For the defendant, the trial is not only about a long prison sentence - the range of punishment is one to ten years - but also about his financial livelihood. At the moment, the former civil servant continues to receive two thirds of his salary. "2000 euros net", he explains to the judge. If he loses his civil servant status - and this can be assumed if he is convicted - his civil servant pension will also be lost.

"Sexual desires were present"
In court, his lawyer Andreas Mauhart paints the picture of a "good man" who would never have attracted attention until 2019 - that's how long ago the allegations date back. The single father of a minor son was lonely, but "sexual desires were present". He initially contacted teenagers, but the chat partners got younger and younger. "I didn't care about the age," the accused admitted to the judge.

In his closing statement, the public prosecutor goes back to the initiation of the chat contacts. "They always started with the question 'how old are you'." He considers the offense of "particular humiliation" to be fulfilled - which would increase the penalty to a minimum sentence of five years. Defense lawyer Mauhart says that "sexuality is not something you choose." The defendant himself has the last word: "I am incredibly sorry."

After the closing arguments, the judge and jury retired for around 1.5 hours to deliberate, and at around 1 p.m. the following final verdict was reached: the accused must go to prison for four years and lose his civil servant status. An administrative court will have to decide whether he also loses his civil servant pension. The court did not consider the intent to cause particular humiliation to be present, and the confession and previous good conduct were taken into account in mitigation. However, the long period of the offense and the high number of victims were aggravating factors.