Attack in an underground parking garage

Victim forced to kneel; girl struck her with a bottle

The 14-year-old (left) was brought to the trial in handcuffs. After the hearing, all the accused girls were allowed to go home.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Krone Zwefo, Krone KREATIV)

Allegedly because she had lied, two 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old lured a teenager from Afghanistan into the dark underground parking garage of Millennium City in Brigittenau to “beat her up.” She wasn’t the only victim—caregivers at the group homes also fell victim to violent attacks by the brutal clique of girls. 

“Do you go to school?” Judge Daniela Zwangsleiter asks the 15-year-old at the start of the trial, in which she and two other 14-year-old girls are charged with, among other things, attempted aggravated assault. “No.” – “Why not?” – “Because I couldn’t manage to get up in the morning.” 

That has changed, at least temporarily. Because in pretrial detention, where she was held with the second defendant, the teenager had to be up at 6 a.m. 

Crime scene: underground parking garage
The 14-year-old is brought into the courtroom in handcuffs. The girls answer quietly and sparingly, though they are capable of quite the opposite. “You are charged with several criminal offenses in various contexts: assault, coercion, theft, and attempted aggravated assault,” the prosecutor begins.

The 14-year-old (left) was brought to the trial in handcuffs. After the hearing, all the accused girls were allowed to go home.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Krone Zwefo, Krone KREATIV)

The most horrific incident took place on March 28 at Millennium City in Vienna-Brigittenau. There, the three Austrian women lured a young Afghan woman into the underground parking garage: “To beat her up,” they say. The victim had allegedly falsely claimed to have been raped by the second defendant’s ex-boyfriend. And for that, they wanted to give her a beating.

Miraculously, “only” lacerations
Because the third defendant filmed the incident, the horrific crime is precisely documented. The 15-year-old forces the victim to kneel down. Then she and her 14-year-old friend begin the violent assault. Pulling hair, kicking her in the face, punching her. Finally, the 14-year-old grabs a glass bottle and strikes the girl, who is trying to flee, more than a dozen times on the back of the head with it. Horrific. Miraculously, the victim escaped with lacerations. 

In this time of crisis, she was let down and ended up lost.

Der Anwalt über seine Mandantin (14)

The lawyer recounts the 14-year-old’s history, noting that she clearly has a massive problem with violence. “She grew up sheltered with a foster mother, but took a wrong turn at age twelve.” Hardly any other case highlights systemic weaknesses as clearly as this one. Because when the girl arrived at a crisis intervention center, things went downhill instead of uphill.

Systemic weaknesses define this case
According to the lawyer, the child experienced sexual boundary violations there at the hands of a security employee. There was a lack of structure and neglect. Added to this were mutual negative influences from the residents with prior issues. “My client was let down during the crisis and lost her way in the process,” he says. The foster mother also told the judge that the girl was unable to secure adequate out-of-home placement for months and had to wait months for urgently needed therapy. Even the representative of the State Prosecutor’s Office for Children and Youth described it as a case unlike any he had seen in 30 years of practice. 

What you did is utterly despicable.

Richterin Daniela Zwangsleitner

Bild: Reinhard Holl

Off to McDonald’s after the crime
The child’s aggression escalated—and also erupted in several attacks against caregivers at the group homes. They were confronted not only with kicks and punches but also with death threats. 

Also disturbing was the response to Zwangsleitner’s question about what happened after the incident in the garage: “We went to McDonald’s. And then we drove to Praterstern to meet up with friends.” There, they also watched the video of the attack, which ends with one of the perpetrators smearing the victim’s blood on the garage wall.

The girl who filmed the incident was found guilty but received no punishment; the 15-year-old was sentenced to 13 months’ probation, and the 14-year-old with a prior conviction received 15 months’ probation. “What you did is utterly despicable. You are incredibly lucky that nothing worse happened to the victim,” the experienced juvenile judge concluded.