But the victim will never see justice however: She suddenly passed away this weekend, two years after the rape, Kronen Zeitung reported.
On Saturday afternoon the girl started complaining of severe headaches. She was taken to the hospital and was unable to function. The 17-year-old succumbed to a particularly severe case of meningitis the same day.
Although meningitis is not a sexually transmitted disease, syphilis is and there is a disease called syphilitic meningitis, which is syphilis left untreated. It is suspected that the girl contracted syphilis after she was raped, but was never treated for the disease.
On the fateful day of April 25, 2017, she was on her way home from the train station in Tulln. An Afghan and a Somali — both living in a nearby asylum seeker home — followed her, and then assaulted and raped her.
DNA traces were secured from the girl’s entire body, and the girl recognised her assailants at the police station. They were brought before the court but the outcome of this trial last year caused a nationwide stir when the accused rapists were acquitted.
They claimed that they had “fun” with the girl. The Afghan, who was deported to his homeland, even received a compensation payment, of more than 6300 euros.
This amount was given to the migrant for the 315 days which he had spent in custody. Her client had resigned himself to the amount, said lawyer Andrea Schmidt after an out-of-court settlement. The amount of possible compensation is 20 to 50 euros per day of imprisonment. Since an amendment to the Criminal Law Compensation Act 2005, legally released defendants are entitled to compensation even if the acquittal was made in case of doubt.
The prosecution had accused the two migrants of harassing the then 15-year-old on her way to her father’s home and raping her repeatedly. But both the Afghan and the Somali pleaded not guilty during the closed-door trial on March 27. The men said that the sexual intercourse had been consensual.
But the 15-year-old showed “clear signs of injury” – scratch marks on the back, on knees and thighs and bruises on her chin. This would suggest that the incident had happened exactly as described in the indictment.
“After the acquittal, the girl became depressed”, says her lawyer Ewald Stadler. She could no longer face daily life without the help of medication.