Sexual abuse

Cyber grooming case: eight-year-old abused

The accused made an eight-year-old girl photograph and film herself performing sexual acts and send him the material.(Bild: CDPiC - stock.adobe.com)

According to the indictment, a 33-year-old man tricked an eight-year-old girl into filming himself performing sexual acts and sending him footage of it. This type of sexual abuse is known as cyber-grooming. The trial is due to take place next Wednesday.

A terrible case of cyber grooming took place in Vienna last spring. This involves the targeted manipulation of children and young people on the internet, with the perpetrators aiming to commit crimes, in particular sexual assault.

Photographing and filming sexual acts
A man persuaded an eight-year-old girl to photograph and film herself performing sexual acts and to send him the material. The suspect - a 33-year-old with no criminal record to date - was found.

Next Wednesday, the man will have to answer for serious sexual abuse of minors, sexual abuse of minors and production of pictorial child abuse material or pictorial sexual depictions of minors at the Regional Court for Criminal Matters. If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison.

The accused pretended to be 19 years old
According to the criminal complaint, the man wrote to the eight-year-old on Snapchat at the end of May and began communicating with her on this platform and later via WhatsApp. The accused pretended to be 19 years old, while the primary school pupil told him her real age. In the course of chatting, the 33-year-old is said to have initially persuaded the child to send him pictures of her private parts. He then allegedly persuaded her to perform sexual acts, with the girl taking photos and videos, which she sent to the alleged 19-year-old at his request.

The incident was uncovered when the girl's older brother noticed the communication with "Sam" on Snapchat. He informed the mother, who checked her daughter's cell phone. After viewing the chat history, the mother immediately reported the incident to the police and handed over the cell phone as evidence. The suspect was quickly identified via his mobile phone number. 

"I deeply regret the crime"
When questioned by the police, the 33-year-old did not make any statements. "However, he stated in his statement that he was remorseful and deeply regretted his actions", the public prosecutor stated in her criminal complaint. She demands a punishment for the accused that is "commensurate with the crime and guilt".