Iraqi child rapist said it was ‘a sexual emergency’
Theresienbad in Vienna. Source: Wikimedia
A 10-year-old boy was raped at a public swimming pool in Vienna by a 20-year-old Iraqi refugee, according to the Austrian media is reporting.
Newspaper Kronen Zeitung said the assailant was arrested at the scene in late December and the child suffered “severe internal” injuries and was treated in a children’s hospital.
“A complaint was filed over the rape of a 10-year-old boy in the Theresienbad swimming pool. We determined the suspect is a 20-year old man, who lives in Vienna. He was arrested and later sent to the Josephstadt prison,” Chief Inspector Roman Hahslinger announced.
The man, whose name has not been announced, dragged the child into a changing room cubicle and assaulted him, it was reported. Die Heute said after the boy approached a lifeguard, the police were called. The Iraqi was arrested using the pool’s three-metre diving board rather than fleeing the scene.
The perpetrator, who came to Austria via the Balkans on September 13, told police it had been a “sexual emergency”. When asked if child rape was permitted in his country, he said he knew that “such acts were forbidden in any country of the world”. The Austrian police did not initially release details of the rape, which took place in December to protect the victim’s identity, according to Kronen Zeitung.
When rumours spread on Facebook, the Austrian police said there was a need to be sensitive about cases involving migrants, adding that they had “been through a lot”. The man confessed it was a “huge mistake”, Die Standard reported. He was charged with rape and grave sexual abuse of a minor, state prosecutors said.
“The topic of refugees certainly is occupying all at the moment, but people needn’t be worried. Vienna is a safe city, nothing has changed about that yet,” state prosecutor Nina Hahslinger announced.
Austria has accepted the second highest number of refugees per capita so far in Europe, second to Sweden. Last month, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said the number of arrivals this year would be capped at 37,500.
Support for refugees in Europe has been falling following the New Year’s Eve attacks on women in Cologne, Germany. Male migrants were banned from a pool in Germany following the attacks. The change in public opinion has led German Chancellor Angela Merkel to suggest refugees had a “temporary” right to stay in Germany and should return to Iraq and Syria once conflict ended.