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22. 03. 10. - 16:00

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22. 03. 10. - 16:00

Vienna Boys Choir hotline has first callers

Eleven former Vienna Boys Choir members have gotten in touch with the institution after it set up a hotline for reporting sexual abuse and mistreatment around one week ago.

Vienna Boys Choir President Walter Nettig said today (Mon) most of the people who had called had mentioned "overly strict educational methods" but not sexual abuse.

A 33-year-old who works as a surgeon in Berlin claimed educators "gave naked choirboys advice on how to wash their genitals" during his time as a member. He also revealed he was taken upstairs by a student older than himself and forced to perform oral sex as a nine-year-old.

Another former member – a 51-year-old Munich-based psychologist – said a bandleader had put his hand on his thigh for more than one hour during a coach journey.

Nettig said the plan was to make the telephone hotline a "permanent feature". It was introduced around one week ago after former choirboys had revealed sexual abuse by educators in a newspaper interview.

"We apologise to everyone in the name of the institute," Nettig said. He added most cases dated back "many years", with some of them having occurred more than 40 years ago.

Nettig said the Vienna Boys Choir would support former members who needed therapy to get over their experiences as choirboys.

He promised that employees would be sacked and reported to police immediately if it turned out they had abused children.

Nettig, who heads the institution that is one of Austria’s top tourist attractions, is a former choirboy himself. He said he had had experience with "sadistic carers" in the 1940.

Nettig claimed pedagogical practices then could not be compared to methods used today.

Meanwhile, Austrian Roman Catholics are up in arms over sex scandals apparently involving dozens of clergymen and children.

A recent poll showed 17 per cent of the country’s 5.6 million Catholics are seriously considering leaving the Church.

Another study revealed that almost eight in ten Austrians believe recent allegations have lowered the Austrian Catholic Church’s credibility.

Austrian Times

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