Facts
The Federal Court had to decide on a case in which the appellant [X.] was accused of sexual acts with a child under 16 years of age. The High Court of the Canton of Aargau had sentenced the appellant to 2 ¼ years in prison and ordered him to pay compensation of CHF 8,000.-- to the victim. The appellant filed both a constitutional complaint and a federal appeal, requesting the annulment of the judgment.
The lower court had questioned the victim again during the appeal proceedings and given the appellant the opportunity to ask the victim questions. The appellant complained that the High Court had arbitrarily established that the victim had been questioned for the third time and that the repeated questioning of the victim had violated Art. 10c para. 1 VSA.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined whether the High Court had rightly assumed that the appellant had implicitly waived his right to question the witness. It found that the appellant had not had the opportunity to question the victim during the entire proceedings and that the victim's statements during the investigation were not usable.
However, the Federal Court decided that the appellant was only objecting to the repeated questioning of the victim in the proceedings before the High Court and not to the High Court's conclusion that he had implicitly waived his right to confront the victim. It came to the conclusion that the conviction of the appellant would not change even if the complaints raised in his appeals were justified.
The Federal Court also pointed out that the Victim Support Act contains special protection provisions for minor victims, such as Art. 10c para. 1…