Case Boris Becker: That happened at the verdict

So this is where this Anglo-German tragedy ended today in more than four acts – in a windowless and characterless courtroom, marginally larger than Court 3, in which the case of Boris Becker was heard until the jury found guilty on April 8th. With a glass case in the middle in which the accused sat, serious and depressed. With him only a female police officer who had trouble unlocking the courtroom door when son Noah went to bring his father a green holdall. It looked very similar to the bag Becker bought yesterday at London’s luxury department store Harrod’s, the English tabloid Daily Mail reported.

Everything about this courtroom is depressingly utilitarian, the textured beige wallpaper, the sand-colored wood panels, the low plasterboard ceiling. The only decoration behind the judge’s red chair: the Coat of Arms of the British Crown in bronze – lion, unicorn and the French motto “Dieu et Mon Droit” – God and My Right.

Hard verdict against Boris Becker

Neither God nor law were on Boris Becker’s side today. Judge Deborah Taylor’s verdict, when it finally came after almost three hours of pleading from the prosecution and defense, was: two years, six months without probation. In any case, Becker has to serve half of the prison sentence, the rest could be released if he behaves well.

In the end, it was count four that got him the prison sentence – the nine payments to family members, friends and business partners totaling almost 427,000 euros in the period shortly before and after the court declared bankruptcy were particularly serious, according to the judge. With the payments, he unfairly removed large sums from the bankruptcy estate, which should benefit the creditors.

Becker’s defense attorney, Jonathan Laidlaw, had recently argued that leniency should be exercised, because his client had ultimately decided on his own initiative that the needs of his children were more important than those of the other creditors. These expenses, if he had explained them, might even have been approved by the executors.

German criminal record was an aggravating factor

There was, according to Taylor, no real precedent to which she could base her verdict. On Becker’s Plus account, she counted letters from his children to the court and references from the foundations for which he was active. She also accepted that his life was one of emotional and financial chaos in the years leading up to and at the time of the bankruptcy declaration. But none of that outweighed Becker’s German criminal record from 2001 for tax evasion, which was a decisive factor for the judge in the verdict. “This is a similar offense, which visibly complicates the facts,” she said.

As the verdict was announced, a jolt went through the crowd. Noah stared wide-eyed at his father in the glass case. He looked shocked and embarrassed, awkwardly tying his shoelaces and struggling for a moment to pick up the green holdall from the floor.

“You’ve lost everything,” Taylor said in her verdict, “your career, your real estate, and your reputation.” And so it ends for the time being, the sad story of the former prodigy from Leimen, which began in Wimbledon in the south of this city: with Boris Becker being taken to a holding cell in the basement of the criminal court, where he has to wait while it is decided which Londoner prison he will come.

Becker’s defense has 28 days to appeal. There is a high probability that she will use it.