Trial in Feldkirch

Nine-year-old daughter sexually abused

The 48-year-old had to answer to the court on Thursday.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

Jury trial in Feldkirch: The accused is alleged to have abused his daughter and her school friend.

Serious accusations from the public prosecutor's office against a 48-year-old unskilled worker. Between 2022 and 2023, the Salvadoran is alleged to have groped two underage girls on their breasts and clothed private parts. According to public prosecutor Johannes Hartmann, the acts are said to have taken place during visiting weekends in the home of the 48-year-old father of one of the victims.

The nine-year-old daughter is said to have been sexually abused twice. One with her friend of the same age when she wanted to spend the night with the other at the defendant's home. Which the previously innocent man denied in the trial on Thursday before the lay jury. When asked by the presiding judge Sandholzer why the victims should invent all of this and incriminate him, he replied: "Because they are best friends."

Victims' representative Surena Ettefagh demanded 1500 euros each in partial compensation for the two victims.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

He cannot explain how the defendant's DNA could be found in the crotch of the trousers his daughter was wearing when she was assaulted. Nor can he explain why the charges against him were only brought much later. After all, he had always had a good relationship with his daughter, even after the divorce from the child's mother.

Independently of each other, the victims had described the incidents credibly in their interrogations. They also stated that there had been no violence involved in the assaults and that the accused had not inflicted any pain on them. The panel of lay judges believed the two victims. The presiding judge sentenced the 48-year-old to a partial prison sentence of 15 months for sexual abuse of minors and breach of authority and awarded the victims partial damages of 1,500 euros each.