New Tirol abuse probe examines alleged abuse of children from Panama

Austria’s Innsbruck public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into several people over the alleged contribution to the aggravated sexual abuse of minors in multiple cases, ORF reported. Investigators suspect that children from Panama may have been brought to Austria and sexually abused there.

The investigation began several weeks ago after authorities reviewed a previously published report by the Independent Special Commission, an independent reform panel. It concerns a person known to investigators who worked at a children’s village abroad, as well as other unidentified people.

Prosecutor’s office spokesman Hansjörg Mayr declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

According to the newspaper Kurier, Panama is mentioned only indirectly in the commission’s final report, presented at the end of June. A summary of the report described a scholarship system that may have been used to conceal abuse allegations. Victims were reportedly brought from their home countries, including to Austria, to receive training. The commission described this as a possible form of compensation for the violence they had suffered.

The summary referred to two specific cases. One woman reportedly arrived in Tirol as a teenager in 1993 and began training as a cook at a luxury hotel. She said the abuse had taken place in Panama and that she had confronted those responsible in Austria for decades. According to the report, they had tried to silence her. She is now believed to live in Germany.

In the second case, the trail of a boy apparently went cold after he arrived in Austria. He had also reportedly started vocational training in Tirol.

The cases raised questions for the commission about who had cared for the children after they left their home country. The commission said it had “real concern for the safety and wellbeing” of those affected.

The broader abuse case involving SOS Children’s Villages, a children’s care organisation, intensified in September 2025 after the Vienna weekly Falter published an internal study on abuse at several facilities. The study alleged that children at SOS Children’s Village Moosburg in Carinthia had been beaten, tortured and abused until a few years ago. They were also allegedly locked up and photographed naked. The organisation’s management knew about the study but did not act, according to the report.

SOS Children’s Village in Imst, Tirol, also faced allegations concerning its past. Serious abuse allegations were later made against organisation founder Hermann Gmeiner, who died in 1986. According to the commission’s report, there were 16 suspected cases of sexual or aggravated sexual abuse involving him, and eight people had already received compensation. Commission chair Irmgard Griss said the allegations against Gmeiner in particular had not been investigated.