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Life sentences for Austrian nun killers

A South African court on Friday sentenced two men to life in jail for the rape and murder of an 86-year-old Austrian-born nun who was strangled with an electric typewriter cord.

Published: 15 May 2015 21:02 CEST

Life sentences for Austrian nun killers

The Sacred Heart Home convent in Ixopo. Photo: www.mariannhill.de

Fellow members of her convent exclaimed “thank you Jesus” in court after Sibongiseni Phungula, 25, and Mondli Shozi, 26, were each handed life terms for the killing of Sister Gertrud Tiefenbacher.

“The accused will be removed from society for a long period of time,
deterring them from killing, raping or robbing anyone else,” Judge Nompumelelo Radebe said in Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Tiefenbacher was based at the Sacred Heart Home Convent in the village of Ixopo, southwest of Durban, where she was killed last month.

The judge said the two men claimed to have been drunk during the crime and had shown no remorse.

“They have never taken the opportunity to face the nuns seated in the
gallery and ask for forgiveness. They never once turned around and took the opportunity to apologise,” she said.

Tiefenbacher was strangled by the typewriter cord, suffocated with a wet towel, and left for dead in her room after being raped by the two men.

The crime shocked the small village and mission where she had lived for 50 years after leaving her native Austria.

She was buried in the village.

On Tuesday, her killers pleaded guilty to her murder and rape.

One of the accused told the court that they had gone to the convent to look for food after a night of drinking.

The pair also stole a vacuum cleaner, groceries and a watch.

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Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations.

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria.

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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