Luca case

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The Luca case was a case of serious sexual abuse of minors resulting in death ( Section 206 Paragraph 1 and 3 StGB ) on 17-month-old Luca-Elias in Austria. He died on November 3, 2007 from injuries inflicted on him.

course

On November 1, 2007, Luca was admitted to the SMZ-Ost hospital in Vienna with severe head injuries . The child died on November 3rd. The mother's friend from the Vienna area was arrested by Schwechat police officers. Together with the mother of the child from Schwaz in Tyrol , he is said to have inflicted severe injuries on the child in the places where they lived in Tyrol and Lower Austria within the four months previously in “constant violence”, said the Lower Austrian Security Directorate.

While the main suspect, the mother's friend, was silent in the first questioning, the 22-year-old mother was already at large on November 6, 2007. The biological father turned to the media with severe criticism of various youth protection organizations. In the ORF and the Kronen Zeitung , the Tyrolean spoke of the fact that the authorities should have known about the signs of violence. The child's father reported hematomas in the buttock area, for which any medical justification had been excluded. The authorities only "talked themselves out", he was convinced. Already in the summer before there was a complaint from the Mödling hospital .

On November 7, 2007, the body of little Luca was autopsied, and the autopsy clearly established that someone was at fault . The boy succumbed to brain edema. At this point in time, it was unclear what action caused the edema . The mother was still being investigated on suspicion of complicity, and the friend remained in custody. The youth welfare authorities in Lower Austria and Tyrol rejected the child's father's allegations: Luca's mother's friend was checked by a social worker at the beginning of October. The mother also had to carry out regular medical checks. On the part of the youth welfare in Tyrol it was said that "at no time did you feel that you had to take the child out of the situation."

On November 8, 2007, the youth welfare of the state of Tyrol announced further details. Two incidents about the abused Luca were "medically examined carefully" in Tyrol. A suspicion of mistreatment could not be substantiated in these investigations, confirmed the authority. At the beginning of July 2007, Luca was admitted to the Mödling hospital with injuries to his head and buttocks and then transferred to the Innsbruck clinic. The second incident, a broken arm, is said to have occurred in early October. The boy was regularly examined by the pediatrician and doctors from the Innsbruck University Clinic. A "harmless state of health" is said to have been determined. The courier reported from a Mödling pediatrician who had already informed the authorities of the abuse in July.

On November 9, 2007, the senior physician of the Innsbruck children's clinic also spoke on the local ORF radio. "The children's clinic has unequivocally diagnosed that there was child abuse," explained senior physician Jürgen Brunner. The child protection group of the hospital was informed, which in turn informed the youth welfare office in Schwaz. They decided that the boy could stay with his mother under certain conditions.

Investigations

On November 12, 2007, the NGO Resistance for Peace filed a complaint with the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office against the youth welfare authorities in Mödling and Schwaz. It is about a "complicity in negligent homicide". The pictures are said to have been taken in July in Mödling Hospital. The next day, the child's father's lawyer, Georg Zanger , spoke in a written statement of "apparently systematic abuse". During his interventions at the youth welfare office in Innsbruck, Luca's father pointed out that the mother had previously committed physical harm to his older children. The child's father joined the criminal proceedings against the 22-year-old and her partner in Korneuburg as a private participant. In addition, he has filed charges against unknown perpetrators with the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office, so that the behavior of those responsible at the youth welfare offices in Mödling and Innsbruck as well as the psychologists dealing with the matter can also be subjected to a criminal investigation.

On November 24, 2007, the dead boy's mother made her first statement in an interview with the Kronen Zeitung. She denied guilt for the child's death. The police have meanwhile confirmed media reports on suspicion of sexual abuse against Luca.

On December 21, 2007, a forensic medical report confirmed the suspicion of sexual abuse in the Luca case. The inquiries into the case were completed on March 3, 2008, and all relevant reports were available to the Korneuburg public prosecutor. Due to the ongoing process, there are no comments on the expert reports. The main suspect's pre-trial detention was extended until the end of March and finally until the end of May. On May 6, 2008, charges were brought against the 23-year-old friend of the child's mother. The man was charged with serious fatal sexual abuse of minors. Investigations are still being conducted against employees of the district authorities in Mödling and Schwaz and the hospital in Mödling. The same applies to the mother.

Processes

On September 26, 2008, the defendant was found guilty after a two-day trial. The verdict is life imprisonment plus admission to an institution for mentally abnormal lawbreakers. The defendant appealed and appealed for annulment .

On 23 April 2009, was nullity of the perpetrator rejected by the Supreme Court confirms the judgment in the appeal hearing at the High Court in Vienna on July 13 of 2009.

On May 4, 2009 the trial against the mother and the responsible social worker began in the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Innsbruck, which was continued on May 11, 18 and 25, 2009.

On May 25, 2009 the mother and the social worker in Innsbruck were found guilty in the first instance judgment. Both defense lawyers submitted the appeal to the appeal for annulment one, guilt and punishment. The appeal hearing at the Innsbruck Higher Regional Court took place on July 8, 2010. The employee of the youth welfare office was acquitted. The mother's sentence, one year of unconditional imprisonment, was confirmed.

Others

On December 5, 2007, around 50 people gathered at Stephansplatz in Vienna to commemorate Luca, who died in November.

The child was buried on December 18, 2007 in the mother's Tyrolean hometown, Achenkirch . Before that there was confusion around the funeral: the biological father and his relatives came three times in vain to the community cemetery to say goodbye to the boy.

On December 27, 2007, the father founded the LUCA child protection association .

Effects

The Luca case caused a sensation, and the Austrian media reported extensively. As a result of this case, there were numerous debates and questions in the Austrian Parliament . The then incumbent Family Minister Andrea Kdolsky spoke out in favor of a reform of the protection of minors in Austria. An amendment to the Youth Welfare Act was introduced on June 4, 2008, according to which, according to Kdolsky, fundamentally reformed framework legislation will be available from 2009, which will enable the federal states to better care and advise families at risk, according to the then Family Minister in a press release.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Chronology in the Luca case. In: Oe24.at . December 21, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  2. ↑ After baby death. In: tirol.orf.at. ORF , November 6, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Luca case: youth welfare services Mödling and Schwaz reported. In: DiePresse.com. Styria Media Group , November 12, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Youth welfare: No evidence of abuse by Luca. In: DiePresse.com. Styria Media Group, November 8, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  5. ↑ Luca case: Two doctors warned, but Bub stayed with his parents. In: derStandard.at . derStandard.at GmbH, May 20, 2008, accessed on October 24, 2010 .
  6. ↑ Photos from Luca: Lawyer raises serious allegations. In: DiePresse.com. Styria Media Group, November 23, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  7. ↑ Lucas mother asserts: "I am innocent!" In: Krone.at . Krone Multimedia GmbH & Co KG, accessed on October 24, 2010 .
  8. ↑ Luca case: now also suspected sexual abuse. In: DiePresse.com. Styria Media Group, November 24, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  9. ^ Case of Luca. In: tirol.orf.at. ORF, December 21, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  10. ↑ Guilty verdict in the Luca case. In: News.at . News Networld Internet Service GmbH, September 26, 2008, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  11. ^ OGH 12 Os 189 / 08y. RIS , April 23, 2009, accessed September 3, 2011 .
  12. ↑ Luca case: verdict against mother confirmed. In: Nachrichten.at . Upper Austria. Online GmbH & Co.KG, accessed on October 24, 2010 .
  13. ↑ Only 50 participants in the sea of ​​lights for Luca. In: Oe24.at. December 4, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  14. ^ Controversy over the funeral of abused Luca. In: DiePresse.com. Styria Media Group, December 15, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  15. ↑ Parliamentary correspondence No. 973 of December 6, 2007. In: Parlament.gv.at. Republic of Austria, December 6, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  16. ↑ Child abuse. In: noe.orf.at. ORF, November 23, 2007, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  17. ↑ 122 / ME XXIII. GP - Ministerial Draft - Legal text. (PDF; 31 kB) In: Parlament.gv.at. Republic of Austria, June 4, 2008, accessed October 24, 2010 .
  18. ↑ Kdolsky: Protecting children from abuse and neglect is a top priority. In: Ots.at . APA-OTS Originaltext-Service GmbH, December 23, 2007, accessed on October 24, 2010 .