Children as victims

Top civil servant paid for live abuse videos

There is great consternation in the Lower Austrian government district in St. Pölten. A top state official is said to have paid for the abuse of Filipino children on camera.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Patrik Huber, stock.adobe.com)

Horrific accusations by the Vienna public prosecutor's office against a top civil servant in the government district in St. Pölten. The state executive, himself a father of several children, is alleged to have paid for the abuse of children on camera for years - and is now in pre-trial detention due to the risk of committing a crime.

"Live streaming" is probably the most disgusting form of crime in the dirty billion-dollar business involving the unimaginable suffering of children. Consumers pay to watch boys and girls being abused on camera. Most of these horrific videos are made in the Philippines. Broken souls are left behind.

Trail leads to the St. Pölten government district
In this case too, the horrific films were shot on the island nation in the Pacific, which is popular with holidaymakers. And so the ball started rolling: After receiving information via Interpol and the USA, the Vienna public prosecutor's office first investigated an unknown "customer" in Austria.

Specialists from the Federal Criminal Police Office were able to uncover the identity of the suspect in the "live streaming" of abused children.(Bild: Reinhard Holl)

The specialists at the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office then succeeded in revealing the identity of the child porn consumer: And the trail led to the government district in St. Pölten!

Abuse streamed into the living room
The suspect is, of all people, a top civil servant (age: early 50s) in the state of Lower Austria with an exemplary career to date. And yet he, himself a married father of children, is said to have paid for the rape of young children on camera.

The well-paid job as a supposedly staid family man served as a façade. In his free time, the man revealed his dark world of thoughts - and apparently streamed the abuse of children virtually live into his living room on his private computer for years, since at least 2020.

His house in Lower Austria was searched by order of the judiciary and the data carriers seized must now be analyzed. The allegations against the man are so serious that he was remanded in custody on the first Sunday of Advent, as confirmed by the spokeswoman of the Vienna Regional Court.

On November 30, the suspect was remanded in custody until December 15 for the time being due to the danger of committing a crime.

Christina Salzborn, Landesgericht Wien

Bild: Martin A. Jöchl

Top officials face up to ten years in prison
The judiciary is accusing the high-ranking civil servant of, among other things, conspiracy to commit serious sexual abuse. His office space in the government district in St. Pölten will probably remain deserted for a long time. If convicted, the previously blameless top civil servant faces up to ten years in prison (the presumption of innocence applies). Further investigations are in full swing.

Meanwhile, by tracking down the perpetrators, the criminologists hope to have saved at least a few children in the Philippines and spared them immeasurable suffering ...