Trial in Feldkirch

Girl (12) sent intimate photos via chat

At the trial, the accused initially feigned ignorance.(Bild: Chantall Dorn, Krone KREATIV)

A man from Oberland with a criminal record pretended to be a "boy" in a chat and demanded sex and intimate photos. He was charged with abuse and had to answer to the Feldkirch Regional Court on Monday. 

The cognitive abilities of the 21-year-old accused may be limited, but the man with several previous convictions apparently knows exactly how to approach underage girls online in order to sexually abuse them later. The current victim is a twelve-year-old schoolgirl.

At the beginning of September 2020, the social welfare recipient, who pretends to be a "boy" online, starts chatting with the girl. They exchanged information. The minor also gave her age. A direct hit for the accused. Finally, he asks the twelve-year-old to send him a photo of her pleasuring herself. The girl refuses.

After the "boy" kept pestering her, the schoolgirl gave in and sent him an intimate photo. Although she refuses his suggestion to arrange to have sex with her, she sends another intimate photo.

Defendant pleads partially guilty
The affair went undetected for a long time. It was only during the course of investigations into another case that officers came across the accused in the girl's chat history. At the trial on Monday, the man from Oberland initially feigned ignorance, but then pleaded partially guilty because the messages were found on his cell phone. "But I have no idea who wrote them. At least I don't," he says.

Public prosecutor Johannes Hartmann did not believe the accused that he had nothing to do with the chat.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

In the end, public prosecutor Johannes Hartmann sees this as a purely protective assertion. "Even if three or four years have passed, you can remember a chat like that. If it wasn't him, he can clearly say, no, I'm not chatting with a twelve-year-old!"

The non-appealable sentence: 15 months in prison. Added to this are another seven months from an earlier prison sentence that was originally suspended. That makes a total of 22 months behind Swedish bars.