Langenzersdorf is a mid-sized market town in Lower Austria with just over 8,000 residents. The crime rate has been low, but now a horrific murder shakes the otherwise quiet community. Police investigations are not yet concluded.
What is known so far is that the victim is a 29-year-old man from Vienna. He was apparently bludgeoned to death. He sustained severe injuries to the head and neck area. No weapon has been found yet. An 18-year-old man has been arrested as a murder suspect. According to Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s largest daily newspaper, the 18-year-old reportedly told police the motive: “I hate homosexuals.” The two men reportedly met online. The murder suspect is described as a martial arts athlete. Kronen Zeitung reports he allegedly “lured the victim into a deadly trap out of hate.”
The Kronen Zeitung is quick to obtain detailed information in police investigations and crime cases because its reporters have strong ties to the police. The daily Kurier also reported: “Murder in Lower Austria: hatred of homosexuals likely the motive.” The Kurier quotes: “Driven by his hatred of homosexuals, the 18-year-old, a Hungarian citizen, allegedly beat the Viennese man he had previously met on social media until he lay lifeless on the ground.” The police say they are shaken “by the sheer brutality of the crime,” Kurier writes.
Investigations into the “Pedo Hunter”
The suspect was transferred to Korneuburg Prison. A request for pre-trial detention has been filed. The accused remains entitled to the presumption of innocence until a final conviction.
According to Kronen Zeitung and Kurier, police are investigating whether the murder suspect belongs to the so-called “Pedo Hunters.” “Pedo Hunters” are “certainly a highly dangerous international trend that has crossed from overseas into Europe,” Kronen Zeitung states. The hunters are individuals or groups who hate gay and bisexual men and wrongly accuse them of pedophilia. They lure gay and bisexual men using fake profiles on dating platforms on the internet under the pretext of child protection. At a meet-up, gay and bisexual men are severely assaulted. The victims, as police repeatedly note, have no pedophilic tendencies.
Last year, large-scale raids against the “Pedo Hunter” scene
The “Pedo Hunter” phenomenon is not unknown in Austria. Last year, the police conducted large-scale raids across several federal states in connection with this issue (TheColu.mn reported). There were numerous arrests. The recovered evidence showed what linked the suspects in their joint actions against their victims: the obvious enjoyment of raw violence, police explained at the time.
The victims at these encounters were subjected to brutal violence (kicks with steel-toe boots, attacks with weapons), robbed, humiliated, and filmed. On one occasion a man was beaten almost to death. The raids led to several criminal prosecutions. The accused faced charges of aggravated robbery, attempted murder, and forming a criminal organization. There were several convictions.
The police stressed in reviewing the cases that none of the victims were pedophiles. “The group claimed to be taking action against pedophile individuals. In reality, the increasingly brutal acts targeted the LGBTQ+ community,” the police emphasized. The perpetrators “explicitly sought out their victims, using dating apps as a tool to locate people,” said Shoura Hashemi, executive director of Amnesty International Austria. “We are not dealing with random individual offenders, but with a structural problem of violence against LGBTIQ people,” said Mariam Vedadinejad, group spokesperson for Queer Amnesty Austria.
The instrumentalization of pedophilia accusations against gay men is also carried out by right-wing extremist groups. For a long time, the model was a Russian neo-Nazi known by the alias “Tesak.” He was found dead in his prison cell in September 2020 (TheColu.mn reported). The Russian neo-Nazi led a group that lured gay men online into a trap and publicly humiliated them with violent acts in videos for social networks.
