Young (and Older) Love: Coach Freed, Resigns

A 42-year-old Austrian handball coach who started a relationship with a (then) 13-year-old boy was given a 22-month suspended sentence in Wiener Neustadt’s Provincial Court Nov. 10.

Renata C. from Croatia, who pleaded guilty, was forced to resign from her post as a coach of a local team, when the relationship with the student handball player 29 years younger than herself became public.

As the couple – who are still together – had sexual intercourse before the teenage boy turned 14, the legal age for consensual sexual relationships in Austria, his stepfather filed a lawsuit. The boy’s mother accepts the relationship,.

The fact that the boy gave consent to the sexual intercourse is "completely irrelevant," argued Judge Alexandra Bauman as reported by the Austrian daily Die Presse on 10 Nov. The sentence, she added, was intended to show that society does not accept sexual acts between adults and young people under 14-year-olds – regardless of mutual affection.