The man told the court he had bad eyesight, which was his explanation for not grabbing the water hose in a Vienna steam bath, but instead groping his neighbour’s genitals. The incident occurred in a sauna area of a fitness studio. The 19-year-old victim reported the incident as a sexual assault to the police.
In court then, the defendant attempted to use his bad eyesight as an excuse, without success. The man’s lawyer went as far as to re-enact the scene as a pantomime, the Austrian newspaper Heute reported. It is safe to say, the judge was unconvinced by both the man’s excuse and his lawyer’s charades. She sentenced the man to a €13,500 fine. Additionally, the defendant was punished by the fitness studio, which definitively banned him from frequenting their sauna and steam baths.
