Austria: Iraqi Refugee’s Conviction for Raping Young Boy Overturned
Court claims he couldn’t understand that the child was saying “no”
A 20-year-old Iraqi refugee brutally raped a 10-year-old boy at a public swimming pool in Austria, claiming he was having a “sexual emergency,” and his conviction has been overturned by Austria’s Supreme Court on the grounds that the rapist didn’t know the little boy didn’t want to be raped.
I have no words.
In a truly shocking twist the Suptreme [sic] Court decided the grown Iraqi man may not have realised the 10-year-old did not want to be sexually abused by him.
Amir A, 20, was visiting the Theresienbad pool in the Austrian capital of Vienna last December as part of a trip to encourage integration.
When the youngster went to the showers, Amir A. allegedly followed him, pushed him into a toilet cubicle, and violently sexually assaulted him.
Following the attack, the accused rapist returned to the pool and was practising on the diving board when police arrived, after the 10-year-old raised the alarm with the lifeguard.
The child suffered severe anal injuries which had to be treated at a local children’s hospital, and is still plagued by serious post-traumatic stress disorder.
In a police interview, Amir A. confessed to the crime; telling officers the incident had been “a sexual emergency”, as his wife had remained in Iraq and he “had not had sex in four months”.
. . . . However, in a bizarre twist, the Supreme Court yesterday overturned the conviction, accepting the defence lawyer’s claim that the original court had not done enough to ascertain whether or not the rapist realised the child was saying no.
According to the Supreme Court President Thomas Philipp, while the verdict was “watertight” with regard to the serious sexual assault of a minor, there was not enough evidence to support the second charge of rape.
The appeal court said the initial ruling should have dealt with whether the offender thought that the victim had agreed with the sexual act, or whether he had intended to act against his will.
The sentence was therefore lifted, although Amir is expected to remain in custody until the rape case returns to the regional court next year.
[Featured image via The Sunday Express]
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Comments
Austria’s law allows 10 year olds to offer legal consent? It seems to me irrelevant whether or not he said no if his saying yes isn’t legally sufficient.