The 20-year-old man impregnated his mentally-unstable cousin in the Lower Austrian town of Mistelbach, with his paternity now confirmed through DNA testing.
According to the news daily Kronen Zeitung, the woman gave birth to a son in March.
The man is accused of sexual abuse of a defenseless, mentally-impaired person, who may also have been a minor at the time of conception. The general age of consent for heterosexual relationships in Austria is 14, however section 207b of the applicable criminal code makes an important exception: if one of the partners is younger than 16 years of age and “not sufficiently mature to understand the significance of the act”, then the act is punishable.
As the result of a judicial decision, the man has subsequently been released from custody after questioning. A trial date for the abuse has yet to be set, according to spokesman Friedrich Köhl from the prosecutor's office in Korneuburg.