Social worker guilty of child sexual abuse

The social worker (left) during his trial Keystone

A social worker has been sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in prison for sexual abuse of more than 20 boys. However the court postponed the jail sentence while the man undergoes therapy in a secure setting, under so-called stationary measures. 

Stationary measures refer to therapy that takes place on an in-patient basis either in a psychiatric clinic or a prison, usually during the offender’s prison sentence. 

In this case, if the therapy comes to a successful conclusion, the man can be released without serving the prison sentence. Only if the therapy is abandoned will the sentence be activated. Stationary measures are normally reviewed after five years.  

The 44-year-old man was also banned from working with minors for five years. 

A district court in Thun on Wednesday found the defendant guilty of abusing his position for 13 years when working with boys aged ten to 12. He was arrested in 2012. 

Both the defence and the prosecutor had called for a shorter prison term than the judge. 

Earlier this year, another court handed down a 13-year jail term for a convicted paedophile care worker in Switzerland’s biggest and most notorious child sex abuse case. 

In May, Swiss voters approved a proposal to ban convicted paedophiles from working with children for life. Opponents of the initiative had criticised the initiative as too simplistic.