There could be more than the last rumored 25 students affected. The educator, who committed suicide in the spring of 2019 following a complaint directed against him, is believed to have committed acts of abuse against students between the ages of nine and 14 since 2004.
As the child and youth prosecutor (KJA) told the APA on Wednesday, numerous data carriers had been seized during a search in the man’s apartment in the course of the investigation. During the evaluation, the investigators came across extensive child pornographic material, some of which he had produced himself. He had pictured or filmed children that he had taught himself. According to the KJA, these included underage boys who had been taught by the pedagogue in 2004, which means that there is a possible crime period of 15 years.
Both the KJA and the Viennese education director Heinrich Himmer are still puzzled as to how the serial perpetrator was able to act unmolested for so long. “As head of the school board, it’s my job to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” said Himmer on Wednesday afternoon in an interview with the APA about the dimensions of the case. He rejected allegations that the matter had been covered up: “The topic was not covered up or kept secret, but the relevant public – the parents, the students, the teaching staff, the child and youth advocate and child and youth welfare – were comprehensively informed .” The parents and school psychologists then spoke out in favor of “not going out aggressively with it,” said Himmer.
The criminal investigation against the teacher, who was extremely popular with colleagues and students at the school, got underway in April 2019 after a victim reported him. After the suspect’s suicide, the public prosecutor’s office dropped its investigation into serious sexual abuse of minors, production and possession of child pornography material and abuse of a relationship of authority. As Director of Education Himmer explained, the difficulty faced by the school authorities in processing the case was that they had no access to the public prosecutor’s files. The school management was informed in October 2019 and the parents concerned “relatively immediately”, Himmer stated. The police initially asked for restraint in this direction – for reasons of investigation tactics, in order to be able to identify or exclude possible accomplices or accomplices of the teacher. There was a first parents’ evening in December 2019, in which the association “Selbstlaut – specialist agency against sexualised violence against children and young people” was involved.
Acts of abuse took place outside of school
As Himmer emphasized in an interview with the APA, it is now clear that the attacks and acts of abuse only occurred outside of the school. The educator had met students outside or taken them home, where he is said to have given them knockout drops. A commission of inquiry set up by the education department after the case became known has already met five times. It was established that the school management or other teachers had not committed any breaches of official law because they had not followed up on indications of abuse. The abusive teacher was – despite his years of acting – apparently not a topic of conversation at school that had reached the management or the teaching staff. “There was no suspicion that they should have known,” said Himmer.
“You have to encourage or increase the willingness that students who hear about abuse or are affected by it open up and talk about it,” said the director of education. There are numerous places and telephone numbers that those affected can contact. Himmer pointed out that the main thing is that these structures are used.
In order to ensure this, the Education Directorate has taken the first steps that must be implemented. Every Viennese school must introduce a child protection concept that is evaluated and checked annually. The crisis emergency plans have to be revised, the aim is to streamline processes and speed up the flow of information.
At the affected school itself, school psychological support was strengthened. “Things are breaking up there with the latest media reports,” reported Himmer. The experts are on hand to support students, graduates and staff if necessary.
Just last week, suspected acts of abuse in a Viennese kindergarten were investigated:
Source: Nachrichten
