Prosecutors probe abuse in Vienna foster home

Oct 19, 2011, 15:57 GMT

Vienna - Vienna prosecutors are investigating the possible abuse of children in a former Vienna foster home, but have ruled out a probe into murder allegations, a spokesman said Wednesday.

A woman who was at the city-run Schloss Wilhelminenberg home in the 1940s and 50s alleged this week that a fellow foster child was beaten to death by a teacher.

Prosecution spokesman Thomas Vecsey said his colleagues were not looking into this case as no one had formally reported the crime.

The woman's lawyer, Johannes Oehlboeck, left it open whether he would press charges. He told dpa he still had to consult further with his client.

The woman said in several interviews that she witnessed the crime and that the victim's lifeless face and body were covered with a cloth when she was carried away by paramedics.

While the death remains unclear, allegations ranging from psychological and physical abuse to serial rapes have been made by at least 26 people who were in the care of the Schloss Wilhelminenberg home, which was closed in the 1970s.