Inappropriate Conduct Also at Vienna SOS Children's Villages

The terrible series of allegations against SOS Children's Villages does not stop. After locations in Carinthia, Tyrol, and Salzburg, as well as allegations of inappropriate conduct against the founder Hermann Gmeiner (died 1986) and a major donor with alleged inappropriate interest in minors who received "services in return," the "Krone" also knows of a current case from Vienna.

First Instance: Two and a Half Years in Prison A 50-year-old former caregiver at an SOS Children's Villages facility in the federal capital was sentenced in August to two and a half years in prison (not yet legally binding), among other things for inappropriate conduct involving minors. The appeal hearing on the sentence takes place next week at the Palace of Justice.

At the beginning of October, the independent reform commission to investigate the publicly known abuses at SOS Children's Villages was constituted. Facilities in several federal states are under criticism.

At the end of October it became known that allegations of inappropriate and physical treatment of eight boys exist against the founder Hermann Gmeiner, who died in 1986. A deceased Austrian major donor is also suspected of having subjected Children's Village children to inappropriate treatment during visits to Southeast Asia between 2010 and 2014.

The acts the man is charged with: according to the court, in the years 2021 and 2022, in the course of his work, he committed 14 serious assaults against one boy. He is also alleged to have engaged in inappropriate conduct with another 12-year-old resident of the facility — twice when the boy was awake and once while he was sleeping. In the residential group, the social pedagogue was even the primary caregiver of the affected person — a position he is alleged to have exploited.

His Colleague Had "Repressed" Explosive Information In his testimony before the jury court, the accused spoke of a "very good relationship" with the young people. On some weekends he had duty alone; he denied inappropriate contact during the trial. However — and this seems unfortunately symptomatic of the Children's Village system: in December 2022, he is alleged to have told a colleague at a Christmas party that he had been intimate with one of the boys. But this colleague did not report it at the time.

"I suspect I repressed it," the man said as a witness in court. Only when the memories of the conversation resurfaced, triggered by statements from one of the affected persons, did he report them to his supervisor and the police.