19 months innocently imprisoned – because of his daughter

Why does a 15-year-old girl make the most serious accusations one can make against her own father? The question must remain open. Because you are not allowed to look into the files. And then why the revocation out of the blue? This question also remains open. The trial against the father last summer was not even listed on the court list that the court reporters received - for reasons that can no longer be reconstructed.

The now 43-year-old father was arrested on March 29, 2007. His daughter - who grew up with relatives and was only brought to Switzerland by her parents in March 2000 - had claimed that from April 2000 onwards she had been repeatedly raped, sexually coerced and involved in sexual acts by her father. In the following six and a half years, she was beaten several times a week, mostly for trivial reasons and sometimes for hours, with fists, hands, belts, baseball bats, cooking ladles and slippers, her hair was pulled, her head was thrown against the wall and she was kicked . The documents also mention burns to the stomach.

Still in custody despite revocation

14 months after the arrest, on June 11, 2008, this extremely serious case of domestic violence was scheduled to be heard in court. The daughter also appeared at the trial unannounced. And before it even really started, it was over again. Out of the blue, the student in the hall retracted all of her statements. Conviction was no longer an option.

But an acquittal was also out of the question. Because the central question had not yet been answered: When had the girl lied? When she made the allegations or when she withdrew the allegations? Until this was clarified, the father could not be released from custody.

“Very differentiated” reports

Prosecutor Markus Oertle questioned the daughter and several witnesses again. And he commissioned a credibility report. It was intended to clarify whether the girl's statements in the criminal investigation were credible. Finally, the 100-page report, which, according to Oertle, was “very differentiated,” was available. It confirmed the worst fears: the descriptions of the sexual offenses contained strong exaggerations - which severely limited the credibility of the statements.

The same applied to the alleged hours of physical abuse. The expert also described the statements about various blows with objects as alien to life, incomprehensible, or exaggerated in the frequency and regularity described.

On November 3, 2008, 19 months after his arrest, the father was released from custody. At the beginning of January 2009, Oertle suspended a large part of the criminal proceedings. At the same time he wrote a new indictment. It also contained various corporal punishments, the girl's description of which, according to the report, had a "real experience background".

Father paid daughter 1,000 francs in compensation

The father did not deny that he had repeatedly slapped his daughter or pulled her hair. That's why the case became public in the first place: at the end of October 2006, the girl collapsed at school and was taken to Triemli Hospital. Swelling of the chin and forearm, bruising to the buttocks and minor injuries to the lip were noted. The district court recently sentenced the man to a conditional fine of 2,700 francs (90 daily rates of 30 francs) for simple bodily harm and multiple assaults. In addition, the father must pay the daughter 1,000 francs in compensation.

For the daughter, now almost 18 years old, who has lived in various social-educational institutions in recent years, the whole matter could be a lot more expensive. Because of his long pre-trial detention, the 43-year-old lost his job as an orthopedic shoemaker with a monthly income of around 8,000 francs. He must be compensated for the wrongful imprisonment he suffered. He left Switzerland - without a family - lives on his pension fund and has no prospect of work - in short: he has lost his entire existence.

Expensive bill for the girl?

According to his defense attorney, claims for compensation and satisfaction will certainly be in the six-figure range. The public prosecutor's office will decide on this. Will the daughter have to pay for all of this? According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the costs can “be borne in whole or in part by the informant if he has filed his report in a reprehensible or frivolous manner”. Criminal proceedings have already begun against the daughter with the youth attorney's office. Accusation: false accusation and misleading the administration of justice. (Tages-Anzeiger)

VeV comment

It was only a few days ago that we published such a case from Germany here.

And then the next case follows – this time from Switzerland.

The hysteria that exists today around the topic of abuse is leading to untenable conditions. As time goes on, allegations of abuse and violence become the wild card in any legal dispute. Whether in labor law, marriage law, divorce law, family law, or wherever, whenever a woman raises an allegation of abuse or use of violence, what was previously a fair procedure quickly turns into a relatively inscrutable game of chance. At least for the man concerned, because in most cases he can hardly defend himself against the prevailing social prejudice and is helpless in the face of these, often fictitious, accusations. As long as our society believes in the image of the male perpetrator and the female victim, certain women and their clever legal representatives will use this weapon.

Because of all the suffering that was inflicted on the man in question, it is also easy to forget what devastating consequences this attitude has for the real victims of abuse.

They run the risk of becoming increasingly untrustworthy, as the abuse has now increased to such an extent that the real victims are almost drowning in it.

We can only hope that society will soon become more sensible and learn that violence and abuse are human weaknesses and not just male mistakes!