Austrian actor Florian Teichtmeister (l) and his lawyer Rudolf Mayer arrive at the tribunal for his trial, on September 5, 2023 in Vienna (ROLAND SCHLAGER)
The actor playing Emperor Franz Joseph in a biopic of Sissi was given a two-year suspended prison sentence in Vienna on Tuesday for possession and production of child pornography, a case that shocked Austria.
Florian Teichtmeister, 43, has taken note of the decision and will have to undergo “psychiatric treatment” to help him control his pedophile tendencies.
He will be placed in a center for sex offenders if he does not comply with the conditions set out by the court.
“I sincerely and deeply regret my actions and I want to apologize,” he had previously said on the stand, wearing a charcoal gray suit.
Thanks to a therapy work started two years ago when the investigation was launched, he says he now understands that “behind each image, sexual violence is hidden”.
On the poster for “Corsage”, the actor was accused of having obtained “about 76,000 documents online” over the period from February 2008 to August 2021, more than half of which involved victims aged 7 to 14.
He had modified many of them, making collages, slideshows and video montages.
The actor expressed his relief after the verdict, according to his lawyer Rudolf Mayer, promising that his client “will work hard to make sure this never happens again”.
– Hardening of sentences –
Prosecutor Julia Kalmar had requested a prison sentence “not to minimize such acts”. “Consumers determine the market, even if Florian Teichtmeister did not attack a child himself”, she had underlined.
The regional court had been placed under heavy police surveillance to avoid incidents with child protection protesters, Austrian media reported.
The movie “Corsage,” which hit theaters in 2022, was filmed before “rumors emerged in the fall of 2021,” as its production explained.
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It was then presented in nearly 70 festivals and its actor, who had affirmed “with conviction to be innocent”, was invited to premieres in Austria as well as in Germany.
He competed in the “Un certain Regard” selection last year at the Cannes Film Festival, where the actress who plays Sissi, Vicky Krieps, received the prize for best interpretation.
In the running for the British film awards, the Bafta, “Corsage” was overtaken by the scandal in mid-January, when the actor was charged, and was ultimately not retained on the list of Oscar nominees of the best foreign film.
In Austria, the prestigious national theater Burgtheater, where the actor was a member, announced his dismissal, while the public audiovisual group ORF undertook to no longer produce or broadcast projects with him.
The case sparked a controversy over the silence of the cultural elites of this Central European country of nine million inhabitants with a rich artistic scene.
The government has in the process proposed a revision of the penal code, which should be adopted by Parliament this fall, according to the Ministry of Justice.
The penalties for this type of offence, deemed “ridiculously weak” by the political class, will be increased, with a possible sentence of 10 years for the production of a “large number of representations” of a child pornography nature.
kym-anb/ber
2023-09-05 18:11:55
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