Kenyan Teen in Austria Sentenced to 18 Months Imprisonment for Robbery and Vandalism

An 18 year old Kenyan man has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for stealing and vandalising a friend’s car, a police cell and banners at the train station in St. Pölten in Austria. He now risks being deported back to Kenya before completing his sentence.

The young man was accused of stealing alcohol from a supermarket by hiding it in his shoes, running away with a cell phone he had borrowed, rioting in a police detention cell where he smashed a telephone booth and broke a window and destruction of a billboard at the St. Pölten train station.

Furthermore, he stole the car keys to his mother’s friend’s car, then drove it to destruction, despite not having any driving licence and being under the influence of alcohol.

In court he tried to plead temporary insanity, an excuse the court dismissed based on evidence given by a forensic psychiatrist Dietmar Jünger.

“He already knew that consumption of alcohol, even a very small amount, brought him to such a state. It can therefore be concluded that he was aware of what he was doing. We can therefore speak of negligence and not insanity”, Jünger told the Provincial Court in St. Pölten.

“He is accustomed to cannabis and alcohol”, Jüngers testified to the court, “He however reaches a pathological state of intoxication at very low amounts of alcohol, at about 2,5 pro mille. This leads to a complete loss of control of his impulses. Without treatment and therapy, there is a high risk of him repeating the same acts”.

“I need to learn how to deal with my problem,” the Kenyan said in his closing remarks, “I want to be a responsible adult!”

The Provincial Court judge in St. Pölten, Markus Grünberger, sentenced the 18-year-old Kenyan, to 18 months imprisonment, a sentence he is meant to serve in a rehabilitation institution for offenders (not final). This is not the first time he has been on the wrong side of the law, in May 2014, he had been released after serving a sentence for 5 other charges.

The young man took in the judgement, though he’s scared of a possible deportation back to Kenya.