Brawl in the cellar

Boy brutally beaten up: Prison for young Viennese boys

Two boys aged 16 and 20 were sentenced to prison terms of six and ten months at the Vienna Regional Court on Thursday afternoon. Because of an alleged sex tape with an eleven-year-old girl, they badly beat up a 16-year-old boy and threatened him with alarm guns.

The teenager and the young man have already been sentenced twice in the Vienna district - both times for violent offenses. And in their third trial, they also have to face charges filled with brutality. On May 29, the two native Austrians - together with an accomplice - picked up a 16-year-old boy from a bench around Max-Winter-Park in Leopoldstadt.

Threatened with a "hole in the leg"
Three of them dragged him at gunpoint into a nearby stairwell and into the cellar. "On the way to the stairwell, one of the defendants threatened the victim that he should not run away or he would have a hole in his leg," the public prosecutor's office claims.

The defendant pressed the barrel of the pistol against his neck and the other defendant pressed the pistol against his ribs.

Anklage gegen die beiden Sittenwächter

Why exactly did it hit the 16-year-old? The moral guardians suspected that the victim could be seen on a video showing an eleven-year-old having sexual intercourse with an older man. He was supposed to admit that he was the one in the sex tape. "The defendant pressed the barrel of the pistol against his neck and the other defendant pressed the pistol against his ribs," the public prosecutor described the brutal assault.

Bad beatings despite protestations of innocence
The teenager assured the physically superior youth that he was not the person on the video, pointing out that his beard looked different and that he had no scars on his upper body. But to no avail: the three of them beat the victim up badly with fists and kicks - bruised ribs, shoulder injuries, muscle injuries, swelling, abrasions on his temple and an injury to his skull. When he stopped moving, the perpetrators ran off with their victim's cell phone.

The boys have now fully confessed before a jury in Vienna. However, they do not claim to have been the driving force behind the brutal assault. Rather, the third member of the group, who had already had a trial for the incident, had instigated it. "They were persuaded by the man who had already been convicted to take part. They are now taking responsibility for this," explained lawyer Florian Kreiner, the 20-year-old's defense attorney. The accomplice received a six-month conditional prison sentence in his trial.

The teenager and the young man did not get off quite as lightly: the older man received an additional ten months unconditional sentence, his colleague six months in prison. The convictions for aggravated coercion and grievous bodily harm are final. The two were acquitted of cell phone theft: "There was no intent to enrich themselves," said defense attorney Kreiner. They threw the phone into the bushes.