“Come out—let’s fight”

Teenagers Verbally Abuse Judge and Court Officer

Time and again, judges and prosecutors are treated disrespectfully in the state.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Daniel Scharinger, Martin Jöchl)

Incidents of misconduct are becoming increasingly common in our courts, particularly by young people. This week, they reached a new low: Two friends of a defendant in a trial involving youth violence lost their tempers at the Vienna Regional Court. The escalation led to a police intervention.

“It’s unbelievable how little respect young people have for Austrian courts and authorities,” says lawyer Philipp Winkler, appalled after a trial involving youth violence in which he served as defense counsel. His young client, along with two accomplices, was sentenced to partially suspended prison terms following a brutal attack on two 15-year-olds in a park in Meidling. One of the perpetrators had kicked the victim in the head as if he were a soccer ball.

Judges need a way to take immediate action against such troublemakers.

Strafverteidiger Philipp Winkler

Bild: Anja Richter

Duo laughs as the crime video is played
What unfolded during the court hearing was indescribable. Two teenage friends of one of the defendants had taken seats in the gallery. When the video of the horrific crime was played, the victim’s mother began to cry. Meanwhile, the two boys behind her were making fun of the scenes. “Can those two stop laughing?” the woman asks the judge, whereupon the boys call her a “b****.” Judge Rat orders the troublemakers out of the courtroom.

Whistling and loud music to disrupt the trial
A few minutes later, one of them—who had previously been wearing a hood—returned to the courtroom without it. When the judge sent him out again, he too got an earful: “You b****,” the teenager cursed at him viciously. A court officer intervened. To him, the boy said unabashedly: “Come out here, let’s fight.”

But that wasn’t all: apparently in protest of being ejected from the courtroom, the duo caused a disturbance from outside—playing loud music and whistling. In the end, the police were finally called in. “It is necessary to verify the identities of spectators,” Winkler demands. “Judges need a legal basis to take immediate action against such troublemakers.”