The Aloisianum case

Five ex-elite pupils appear before the judge today

The trial is taking place at Linz Regional Court.(Bild: Markus Schütz, Krone KREATIV)

Today is the day of truth for five former pupils of the elite educational institution Aloisianum in Linz. In court, two of them accepted responsibility, three said "not guilty". The lawyers are unanimous in saying that this case "should never have ended up in court". The school and parents had "reacted wrongly".

"Who will be the first to punch in?" - No, according to the first accused 16-year-old pupil, this was not meant as a threat of rape, but as a question of whether one of his two classmates, who had carried the girl up a flight of stairs, would "tear up". "We students speak like that too, it's not an unusual tone," said the boy when the judge asked him whether such language was common in his circles.

"No matter who your parents are"
The judge made it clear right from the start that it was not important to him whether the parents were entrepreneurs, lawyers or doctors - referring to the parents who had taken their seats behind the 16 to 17-year-old sons in the jury courtroom. "It's all about you and it will be a completely normal trial," said the judge.

Girl was supposed to wipe a boy's bottom
The lawyers for the five defendants said in unison that the situation "should never have ended up in court". It had gotten out of hand after two boys had carried her into a room during a trip to Italy. According to the public prosecutor, she was forced to "crack out" the backs of five boys. According to the accused, however, this had happened voluntarily. She was then locked in the room and allegedly threatened with being locked in a box or that she should wipe a classmate's bottom.

Responsibility yes, but no criminal guilt
Each of the five pupils is represented by a lawyer. Two had already agreed in advance with the representative of the alleged victim to contribute to the costs of psychological treatment and a lump sum for pain and suffering. The clients would take responsibility, but the legal representatives questioned whether there had been any coercion or even a dangerous threat, i.e. whether the limits of criminal law had been exceeded.

Work it up, yes, but not in court
"It was too much. Yes, that's true. But if that's coercion, then entire school classes should be on trial," says one lawyer exaggeratedly. "Yes, the situation had to be discussed and dealt with. But at school and not in court," said one of the legal representatives, who said that teachers and parents had overreacted and "blown everything out of proportion" as a result.

"No opportunity to apologize"
"How can you explain that the classmate was very affected by what happened when everything was so funny," said the judge to the first defendant, who described the incident as quite humorous and funny. "We didn't think anything of it. The next day we were ordered to see the teachers and we didn't know what exactly we were being accused of. We were segregated, there was no way to communicate with the pupil," said the accused boy, who said that he was offered to apologize immediately if "something didn't go right". Incidentally, he refused to answer questions from the public prosecutor.

Diversion rejected in advance
The judge rejected diversion for those boys who took responsibility. Incidentally, four of the pupils had to leave the Aloisianum, one of the accused is still in class with the girl - according to her lawyer, she had also spoken to him. 

Pocket money is to be counted as income
The trial is scheduled to last until the afternoon; the victim, four classmates and a teacher have been summoned as witnesses. The five defendants face up to six months imprisonment or a fine of up to 360 daily rates. The latter would be calculated according to their income - the boys receive between 50 and 270 euros pocket money per month. A verdict is planned for the afternoon - we will report on developments in the courtroom on krone.at.