“I can still smell it – it’s super awesome!”

The 48-year-old Swiss from the Limmat Valley is accused of sexually abusing two brothers between the ages of eight and 15 between 1993 and 1997. The man was around 20 years old at the time and lived in the same settlement as the victims.

A first day of the trial before the Dietikon district court took place last October. At that time, the defense attorney filed a motion to have the proceedings discontinued. “The two victims could no longer give their exact age at the time. But that is of central importance when it comes to the statute of limitations,” she said. In Switzerland, there is no statute of limitations for serious sexual abuse of children under the age of twelve. The process was interrupted to clarify whether the boys were not yet twelve years old or older. So the question is whether the deeds are time-barred or not.

For this reason, the court called the two brothers as witnesses at today’s trial. The accused had to leave the courtroom at short notice and follow the questioning via video transmission in a separate room. The older brother, a 41-year-old father, says: “I can’t say that and I don’t want to know either.” Over the years he has tried to suppress the sexual abuse, which he has done relatively well. That’s why he doesn’t want to remember it anymore.

The brother, who is four years younger, cannot comment exactly on the period. Only so much: “I certainly attended the lower school and was under twelve years old.” And then he says surprisingly: “I still smell him – that’s super awesome!” He also smelled him again in the separate room where he sat down after the questioning and where the accused watched the video transmission beforehand.

The accused denies the actions: “I didn’t do it,” he says, and refuses any further information. The public prosecutor demands an unconditional prison sentence of four years. The sexual abuse took place primarily in the suspect’s parental home. The man first watched porn with the boys, kissed them and touched their penises and they had oral sex. The younger brother was said to have been sexually assaulted a total of ten to twenty times a week for several months, about once or twice a week. However, the accused did not use any violence and did not put the boys under pressure. In the case of the older brother, the actions are time-barred, so the public prosecutor has dropped this case.

The case came to light when the younger brother filed a complaint with a psychologist after therapy. The accused was arrested in August 2019 and was in custody for three weeks. He has half an IV pension, is suicidal and suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His lawyer is demanding that the case be dropped or acquitted. She speaks of false memories or pseudo-memories of the two alleged victims. The brothers would not have intentionally told an untruth. Only after the younger brother’s therapy with the psychologist did this childhood memory surface. “We do not know where these memories come from, but the allegations did not take place,” said the lawyer.

The Dietikon District Court will make the verdict on Friday afternoon.