12/02/2022 12:37 (act. 12/02/2022 12:40)
After the allegations, the jury begins its verdict ©APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH
The trial against three youths who must answer for the death of a 13-year-old teenager by rape resulting in death and serious sexual abuse at the Vienna Regional Court entered the final phase on Friday. The prosecution and defense first delivered their closing arguments, after which the jury retired to deliberate. A verdict is expected in the evening.
The public prosecutor assumes that the accused drugged the girl on June 26, 2021 in an apartment in Vienna-Donaustadt with the intention of abusing and then assaulted the 13-year-old teenager. The girl did not survive the drug cocktail. The autopsy report revealed that the 13-year-old died a violent death as a result of drug poisoning and suffocation.
The prosecutor said that each of the three accused would deny involvement in the crime. Everyone fears the consequences and “would save themselves from shipwreck”, according to the prosecutor. Just as they collectively committed the act, they would collectively try to cover it up. “There were numerous contradictions in the process,” said the prosecutor. “I was shocked by what the accused said,” she said. “There is no trace of honestly intended remorse.”
Each of the defendants stated that they had consensual sexual intercourse with the girl, who all fell asleep afterwards and then all provided exemplary first aid, according to the prosecutor. “It couldn’t have been like that, because otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Prosecutors assume the following sequence of events: The group had gone with the 13-year-old teenager to the apartment of the second accused, where drugs were consumed and refrigerated. At 2 am, the girl was still in contact with a friend by phone and still seemed unaffected. After that, the third accused, who said he was the boyfriend of the 13-year-old, would have harassed the young woman. According to the prosecutor, the three began carrying out the crime plan and mixed ecstasy in a drink. There were at least six pills containing the active ingredient MDA, but there were probably more. According to the toxicological report, the girl has three times the lethal dose in her body.
So, according to the indictment, all three molested her. At around 4:57 am, videos were produced that were the subject of the trial and were shown to the jury behind closed doors. This is to see the girl’s agony. “These are images you can’t get out of your head,” said the prosecutor. When the 13-year-old’s condition worsened, they gave her drinks and bathed her. But all this was useless. To cover up the crime, they took the girl out of the apartment and leaned her against a tree. At 6:56 am they called the ambulance and the girl was already dead.
“No punishment” could bring the 13-year-old girl back to her family, the prosecutor said. But the maximum penalty would be more than justified given the many aggravating reasons and the lack of mitigating reasons, the prosecutor said. The crime of rape resulting in death was fulfilled in any case. “There is absolutely no doubt about it. Talking about consensual sex is a mockery of the victim,” the prosecutor said. The evidentiary procedure also gave rise to new evidence that there may have been intent to murder, at the latest when the toxicologist submitted his report. Furthermore, the first accused always told his drug users not to consume more than a quarter of ecstasy. He must have been aware of the effects of drugs. The girls are not “fair game” whose situation can be exploited by anesthesia, the prosecutor said. “Such acts must be ruthlessly brought to justice and the perpetrators held accountable.”
Lawyers for the family began their final comments with pictures of the dead girl on a flipchart, showing her with her dog and skiing. Johannes Öhlböck, representing the parents, read a letter from the father to the jury. When her son died, “I died with her”. A world collapsed for him. “It changed me: the suicidal thoughts disappeared. (…) But the emptiness was there and it didn’t get better.”
The accused showed a complete lack of understanding, said Florian Höllwarth, who represents the 13-year-old’s brothers. “That someone doesn’t even regret that someone died.” There have been 28 feminicides this year. The jury is responsible for all girls and women who do not have the possibility to conduct such a process, said the lawyer. It needs to be made clear to the perpetrators that “in Austria, women and girls have their rights and no one can take them away”.
Defense lawyers for the three defendants, Wolfgang Haas, Thomas Nirk, Andreas Schweitzer and Sebastian Lesigang, asked the jury not to allow their decisions to be guided by emotions. The defense lawyer for the third accused, Andreas Schweizer, pointed out that the case was widely reported in the media. “This is an attempt to criminalize an entire group.” But the jury would have to make an objective decision. “It’s a little hard not to act on emotions here,” Schweitzer said.
The legal representatives also asked them to get an idea of each of the accused and make a decision based on the facts. Even if the Public Prosecutor’s Office repeatedly emphasizes the joint acts of the three, one cannot evaluate all of them here, Lesigang said, for example.
Until the end of the trial, it was not clear who gave the girl the overdose and the men continued to blame each other. Lesigang even demanded the acquittal of his client, the third accused. “He didn’t know about the pills, he wasn’t there.”
All three accused apologized in their final words to Austria and the girl’s family. “If I had known I had fake friends, I would never have taken her there,” said the third defendant.
At noon, the jury went into deliberation. You must decide whether, if found guilty, the crime was rape resulting in death and aggravated sexual abuse, or murder or murder by omission. In case of conviction, the oldest defendant, who was of legal age at the time of the crime, may be sentenced to a prison sentence of ten to 20 years or life imprisonment. The other two face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.