Imprisonment and committal

Nude photos of pupils: Graz ex-teacher guilty

The defendant in court(Bild: Monika König-Krisper, Krone KREATIV)

The former teacher who had nude photos of more than a dozen of his pupils sent to him via fake social media profiles was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison in Graz on Friday. He will also be sent to a forensic therapy center.

The man had confessed to some of the accusations during the previous days of the trial at the provincial criminal court. However, he denied that he had touched any young people. In addition, the victims are said to have been over 14 years old.

Guilty verdict on almost all counts
However, the lay assessors gave the boys more credibility with their sometimes detailed statements in the contradictory hearings. The teacher was therefore found guilty on Friday on almost all charges - including sexual abuse. He asked for three days to reflect, the public prosecutor's office made no statement. The verdict is therefore not final.

"Perfidious and disgusting"
According to public prosecutor Hansjörg Bacher, the ex-teacher had gained the trust of his pupils in a "perfidious and disgusting way" by posing as a girl on social media for years and thus receiving the boys' material. In addition to the accusation that he obtained the recordings with sexual content from minors, the accused was also convicted of abuse of authority, attempted coercion, blackmail, deception, defamation, suppression of evidence and giving false evidence.

Prosecutor Hansjörg Bacher(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

In her verdict, Judge Julia Riffel spoke of "completely credible pupils" who would have had no reason to invent the abuse in such detail. "They were like a spider in a web of intrigue and deception," said the judge, summarizing the picture she got of the accused. "You showed zero empathy and acted like a puppeteer."

Incarceration due to risk of repetition
The lay judges had recognized a "particularly insidious approach" and, due to the high risk of repetition, the defendant was committed to the forensic therapy center.