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Photo: Tobias Steinmaurer / IMAGO
According to a report by a commission of inquiry, a teacher in Vienna abused dozens of children.
He sometimes used knockout drops.
According to the report, the existence of 40 victims has been proven.
25 of those affected are known, 15 others - previously unidentified - can be seen on photo and video material that was secured during a house search in the teacher's apartment.
The Vienna Education Directorate set up the 2021 investigative commission.
According to the authorities, the acts took place over a period of 15 years.
In 2019, the suspect committed suicide after being investigated.
According to all respondents, the educator was the most popular teacher at the school, the report says.
He apparently used all his energy "to make himself irreplaceable and then to be able to abuse the students entrusted to him unnoticed".
Since the man also taught at a neighboring school, letters would now be sent to their former students to find out about any abuse and to offer help, it said.
"Many who didn't talk to each other intensively"
In its report, the commission also criticizes a “system failure” on “all levels involved”: “There were too many errors overall,” said education director Heinrich Himmer, according to ORF.
The exchange of information on attacks between the individual authorities should be "clearer and on a legal basis".
In the case of the teacher, there are "many people who haven't talked to each other intensively."
The Commission is not an investigative authority.
It consists, among other things, of employees of the education department and the child and youth welfare department.
bbr/dpa