Sentenced in Vienna

Prison sentence! Can Waltraud now go to women’s prison?

Since the summer, Walter has officially been a woman named "Waltraud Gerhard P."(Bild: Zwefo)

Waltraud P. - a truly controversial personality. In Vienna's Landl district, the former red light star, who only changed her gender to female in the summer, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for re-activation. The 60-year-old now wants to go to a women's prison. For her defense lawyer, there is nothing to stop her: "She is a woman."

A woman sits in court in Vienna's provincial court - packed with muscles and bald. You look in vain for feminine features. But on paper, Waltraud P. is female. The "Krone" newspaper reported in detail about the former red-light star, who had her gender changed in the summer - so Waltraud can now retire four years earlier. "Now I'm still with the AMS, in six months I'll be a pensioner," she says in the Vienna provincial court.

Since the summer, Walter has officially been a woman named Waltraud Gerhard P.(Bild: Zwefo)

Tens of Nazi pictures and messages
The defendant is now in court for numerous violations of the Prohibition Act. As Walter, the woman sent messages, pictures and videos in chat groups from 2015 to 2023 - "humoristically packaged glorifications of National Socialism", as the prosecutor calls it. "According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, she is part of the far-right neo-Nazi scene."

As a client, she is actually blameless. Her male predecessor has numerous previous convictions. At the time, she was infected with this ideology.

Verteidiger Nikolaus Rast

Or at least Walter, who had twelve previous convictions, was. Because her defense lawyer Nikolaus Rast says: "As a client, she is actually blameless. Her male predecessor has numerous previous convictions. Back then, she was infected with these ideas. Thank God she has returned to the true values of society." The 60-year-old Waltraud herself is taciturn but fully confesses in her reoffending trial: "There's nothing to add."

Waltraud with her lawyer Nikolaus Rast (left)(Bild: Zwefo)

So by lunchtime, the verdict is already out: 20 months in prison and it's legally binding. Now the big question: where will the woman with the muscles and the bald head serve her sentence? According to the current status in the women's prison, defense lawyer Nikolaus Rast confirms. Presumably in the Schwarzau prison. Where the famous "ice lady" and the now deceased serial killer Elfriede Blauensteiner also served time. Everything else will be appealed against immediately. "After all, she is a woman," says Rast.

"Individual case-by-case decision"
The Ministry of Justice does not want to give a clear answer: "A change in the civil status of a transgender person in the central civil status register leads to a change in the gender entry in the penal system. Prior to such a change, the placement and visitation of transgender persons in prison is always an individual case-by-case decision, taking all circumstances into consideration. As always, the BMJ does not provide any information on individual criminal cases for reasons of personal rights and data protection."

The presiding judge of the jury court will now send Waltraud a summons to appear in prison - she will then have one month to report to the prison. This will probably be sooner than the competent registry office can make a legally binding decision. The case is currently being examined there. Until last week, the 60-year-old was able to provide evidence that she is indeed a woman. Now they are waiting for a decision from the City of Vienna. But that could take a while ...