Despite pedo allegations – priest Thomas Jäger confident of victory – kath.ch
Excitement in Liechtenstein: The former pastor of Ruggell, Thomas Jäger, is confident of victory. On his website he writes that an expert opinion clears him of the charge of having consumed child porn. The prosecutor’s allegations were “unfounded”. The authority disagrees.
Raphael Rauch
The Liechtenstein public prosecutor’s office has been investigating the German priest Thomas Jäger since 2019. Uh war Concerns despite his home diocese of Limburg was ordained a priest in Liechtenstein by Archbishop Wolfgang Haas in 2006. From 2012 to 2019 he was pastor of Ruggell.
«Attempted sexual abuse of minors»
The public prosecutor raises two different allegations. It’s about “attempted sexual abuse of minors” – and child porn. Thomas Jäger denies the allegations. It is the presumption of innocence.
But first things first: On October 24, 2019, a girl reported to her parents that Thomas Jäger had lured her into the vicarage and massaged her chest under the pretext of wanting to give a little altar boy. The parents file a complaint.
References to child porn and Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”
On November 12, 2019, there will be a house search. The police seized Jäger’s cell phone. IT specialists find suspicious files and URL links.
There are also “accidental finds (…) that indicate a right-wing extremist attitude”: for example, “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler “as well as a list of domestic neo-Nazis”.
IT report is delayed
Thomas Jäger denies massaging the girl and consuming illegal porn. He claimed the evidence of illegal material found on the phone was not his. Nevertheless, he is initially convicted. Even if the reconstructed website history has no information on the time, the district court in Vaduz is convinced of Thomas Jäger’s guilt.
An appointment hearing will take place in February 2021. The Higher Regional Court referred the case back to the Regional Court for retrial. A new expert opinion is therefore due, but the expert does not deliver. A new appraiser must be found.
The report has been available since January 16th
Like Thomas Jaeger writes on his website, the new report is now available – since January 16, 2023, delivered by the Munich company “FastDetect”. “Our expectation that the allegations made by the public prosecutor’s office in February 2020 would be unfounded was met,” Jäger writes on the website. And further: “Even today, neither statements can be made about the time the incriminated websites were called up by the user (time of the crime) nor about the content of the websites at the alleged time of the crime.”
According to Thomas Jäger, the expert, named Stefan Fuchs, writes that “the way the evidence of the website content […] not a court-proof documentation [entspricht]».
Thomas Jäger accuses the authorities of “manipulation”.
Thomas Jäger speaks of a procedure that is not only directed against him, but also against the church. He accuses the authorities of “manipulation” and demands that this must be “completely cleared up”.
Robert Wallner, senior public prosecutor in Vaduz, shows no understanding for the allegations. “The report was sent to the responsible public prosecutor for inspection. We will speak to the court and not in the media, »says Robert Wallner on Tuesday to kath.ch.
Quotation “abbreviated”.
The senior public prosecutor also said: “The report does not criticize the work of the state police in any way, Schwergut attests the state police that the software products used for the IT forensic evaluation of a mobile device correspond to the everyday procedure and that, according to the expert, there was no faulty procedure can be seen in the data extraction and processing of the mobile phone data.»
The quote from the report published by Thomas Jäger is “correct, but shortened and refers exclusively to the subsequent reconstruction of the content of a website”.
There should be two court hearings
Observers assume that there will be two court hearings in the next few months. On the one hand because of the illegal child pornography. On the other hand, because of the allegation of having massaged a girl in the chest area.
Thomas Jäger’s lawyer left a request from kath.ch unanswered.
© Catholic Media Center, 01/24/2023
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