A dispute arose after a drunken 27-year-old harassed visitors in the south tower of Vienna’s landmark. The cathedral employee fell down the spiral staircase after being hit and only woke up in the church master’s office. The case went to trial in Vienna.
The doorman from the south tower in Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral prefers to wait behind the glass door in the Landl. He doesn’t want to meet the man who badly beat him up on February 15th again. That day he was on duty in the cash desk area of the tower. After climbing 343 steps, visitors reach the tower room and are rewarded with a breathtaking view over Vienna. Scuffle in the south tower The accused Chechen also went upstairs that morning and rioted. Back downstairs, the 27-year-old asked his future victim how he could get to the top of the tower? “You can’t go up there,” answered the gatekeeper, but that didn’t stop the defendant from making his way up again. The cathedral employee, who had now been informed that people were being harassed, followed him and forced his way up past him on the narrow spiral staircase and blocked his way. Suddenly the defendant gave the gatekeeper in the world-famous church two punches. The victim fell down the stairs and suffered a bruised skull and chest. “My client only woke up in the church master’s office,” says victim representative Werner Tomanek. The defendant has gaps in his memory. “I drank something for the first time in my life. I don’t remember the incident very well. In any case, I am very sorry,” said the confessed defendant in the trial. “The alcohol experiment went wrong,” adds his defense attorney Marcus Januschke. Because the defendant has a clean record and has a job, judge Stefan Erdei agreed to a diversion with a two-year probationary period. The remorseful cathedral thug gave the victim’s representative 1,000 euros in compensation.
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