The Court of Appeal toughened the sentence for a choir master who abused children for a long time. He will go to prison for six years instead of the original four years. Part of the punishment remained institutional sexological treatment and also the maximum possible, i.e. a ten-year ban on working with children. The decision is final. According to the court, he touched and raped a boy in the parish church, the youngest was then eight years old.
Prague
12:32 p.m March 27, 2024
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The Court of Appeal toughened the sentence for the choirmaster who abused children for a long time (illustrative photo) | Photo: René Volfík | Source: iROZHLAS.cz
According to the indictment, the choir master abused or raped 16 boys. There were hundreds of individual attacks in ten years. The man gradually confessed to his actions. On Wednesday, he said he deserved the punishment. And that he expects to go to prison.
“Of course it will be difficult, but I deserve the punishment for the things I have done,” he said. He is being treated for deviance in a psychiatric hospital, and is said to be trying to change his life.
The state attorney does not agree to four years in prison for the choirmaster who abused children for ten years
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The man committed the acts in the Prague choir he founded between 2002 and 2012, with hundreds of individual sub-attacks consisting of groping, masturbation and oral sex. Years later, in 2021, he also abused his pupil, whom he was teaching to play the organ. All of the man’s criminal activities came to light only recently, when one of the victims filed a criminal complaint.
The choirmaster abused his ward directly in the parish building, where he used to hold the exam set, in his home, in the car, at the choir’s foreign training camp or even while traveling by car to mass in various churches.
During police statements, the former singers recalled, for example, that the choirmaster called the tickling of the thighs and abdomen, which gradually turned into stroking and touching the crotch, “Canadian torture” and passed it off as a game. One of them testified that the man tried to have anal sex on him.
The boys did not actively resist adult authority – some of them were only eight, the oldest 13 years old. They were not comfortable with the man’s actions, and at the same time they were afraid that someone would find out about him. Some of them later struggled with depression or suicidal thoughts, self-harm, remorse, doubts about their sexual preference and problems establishing relationships with girls.
Marie Veselá
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