Vienna Regional Court acquits 15-year-old and her mother in defamation trial

In a voice message played during the trial, dated 4 December 2025 and allegedly sent via the girl's school account on Microsoft Teams, the 15-year-old was urged, among other things: "Tell everyone at school that I'm not the father" and "We'll do it on Friday." Another passage urged an abortion. The boy of the same age stated that the message had not come from him, but could not explain whose voice was to be heard instead.

The 15-year-old told the court that she had initially been unable to tell the truth. "We couldn't tell the truth because at the time my uncle's lawyer was with me," she said. In a confrontational questioning in March 2026, she had also described a different form of rape than on Wednesday at the trial. Her classmate stated: "Nothing happened."

Statements of those involved

The mother said she had learned of the incident through a call from the school. Toward her daughter, she is said to have said: "Just go ahead and say you're pregnant." On Wednesday, she explained from the witness stand that at the time she had worded her statement as follows: "Ok, I'll take this on, I want to protect you. But we're going to the gynecologist." She cited honor as her motivation: "With us, honor counts."

The defense argued that the sexual contact had in fact taken place, but that the girl had "out of panic fear of the reaction from her strictly religious environment" kept silent about the exact circumstances and had also been afraid of actually being pregnant. Whether the contact was consensual remained unclear, according to Wednesday's hearing.

In her reasoning for the verdict, the judge explained that the indictment for false accusation failed for the reason alone that the suspicion of pregnancy had in fact existed with the student: "This rules out the charge of false accusation." What had actually taken place between the young people could not be clarified in these proceedings: "What really happened now will not be clarified here." At the same time, she stated: "It is clear that something took place here."

The judge's reasoning

The 15-year-old had told her class teacher about a sexual assault situation and a pregnancy. An investigation had previously been conducted against the boy for a sexual offense, but it had been dropped.

From the school route, triggered by the school's call, through to the gynecological examination, the mother said she took on the role of protector, while the young person simultaneously feared for her reputation in a religiously shaped family environment. Both sides — the defense as well as the public prosecutor's office — indicated that, beyond the question of defamation, the events also reveal a failure of protective systems.

Open questions and legal status

The participants in the proceedings indicated that the family initially sought legal assistance through the uncle's lawyer before the student made her own statements. The discrepancy between the statements given in March and those given on Wednesday was not definitively resolved in the trial.

Both acquittals can be challenged by the public prosecutor's office on appeal. Until a final decision is reached, the complex of rape allegation and defamation indictment therefore formally remains open.

The case throws a spotlight on the difficult distinction between defamation and a report of suspicion of a possible criminal offense when adolescent parties come from a religiously shaped environment and both the public prosecutor's office and the court ultimately point to the lack of clarifiability of what actually occurred.