Prague security guards charged with luring, beating homeless people

Police in Prague have arrested three security guards accused of brutally beating, humiliating and blackmailing homeless people inside a city-center shopping mall, authorities said.

The men, aged 19 to 21, allegedly lured victims into an evacuation staircase, where they struck them with batons, kicked them, cut them with knives and scissors, and whipped them with belts. They recorded the attacks on their mobile phones, police said.

Detectives uncovered the case after a young homeless foreigner clashed with a restaurant attendant in a department store in Prague 1 late last year, in November. The staff called security, who then took the man to the evacuation stairs, sprayed him with pepper spray and assaulted him, police spokesman Richard Hrdina wrote.

A video released by the police shows the guards whipping, punching, and kicking the homeless people in a seemingly secluded area.

"In the process, they forced him to take off his leather belt, with which they then whipped him on his bare back. They then left him to his fate, kept the belt as a 'trophy' and went back to the department store," Hrdina said in a press release.

Investigators later discovered multiple videos of similar attacks stored on a suspect’s phone. "They kicked the injured, beat them with fists, telescopic batons, or, for example, cut them with knives and scissors on various parts of their bodies. They tried to knock out one of them's teeth with a telescope and forced another to masturbate in front of them, while beating him with a metal baton," Hrdina said.

Police said at least eight cases of abuse were documented, and several victims have been identified. Authorities are asking anyone who recognizes other victims in the videos to call the national emergency number 158.

All three suspects have been charged with bodily harm, extortion, robbery and dangerous threats. If convicted, they face up to eight years in prison. The main accused is being held in custody, police said.