Image: VOLKER Weihbold
“Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that she was unconscious,” said the previously blameless man. It had “happened more often in the past” when they became intimate with each other, “that she was unconscious and woke up after ten minutes”. He “loved his girlfriend very much,” said the accused: “I wanted to wake her up, but she didn’t move anymore.”
Regarding the violent death of the 14-year-old, the defendant stated that she suddenly came out of the children’s room and started screaming. “Things got out of hand.” He told the girl, “Stop screaming! Stop screaming!” shouted, but in vain. “The daughter wanted to speak to her mother.” He was “overwhelmed, desperate” in the situation.
“To calm her down, he started choking her,” said defender Manfred Arbacher-Stöger. Arbacher-Stöger claimed that his client was basically “a relatively quiet guy” and was actually prepared for a “romantic candlelit evening” at the time.
Prosecutor contradicts the version
The prosecutor fundamentally contradicted the defendant’s version, which criminally amounted to negligent homicide. She saw the accused as a double murderer who – for whatever reason, the 49-year-old had used his right to refuse to testify until the main hearing and did not provide any information about the course of the crime and the motive – intentionally killed his girlfriend and her eldest child from a previous relationship , while the woman’s two sons, aged nine and seven, slept next door in the children’s room. There is no evidence for the defendant’s version, it does not match the evidence at the crime scene.
At least the nine-year-old should have woken up due to the noise in the living room and – at least in part – noticed the violent events, as the prosecutor explained in detail. “There is a lot of evidence that it was him,” emphasized the prosecutor, citing crime scene and DNA evidence. There is “no plausible explanation” for the act and “no responsibility that makes it understandable”, the prosecutor stated: “There is no way around a conviction for murder”.
internet acquaintance
The mother of three met the man – a native Tunisian who has not had a regular job since 2016 – through a dating app. When the woman’s two sons woke up the morning after the bloody crime, they found neither their mother nor their older sister in the apartment. The bodies had been brought into the bedroom before dawn, the room locked, the key removed. At the time, the 49-year-old was already fleeing towards France. Because the two boys were hungry, they went to a supermarket together and bought something for breakfast. They then went to an ophthalmologist because the nine-year-old had a check-up appointment for his contact lenses.
In the ordination, the staff found it strange that the children showed up without their mother. Because the two could not say anything about the whereabouts of the woman, the doctor called the police. She checked the apartment on Mollardgasse. Officers found the key to the bedroom, opened the door and discovered the dead, with the mother’s mouth still wrapped in gray duct tape.
The urgent suspect was arrested on September 13 near Brest in northern France. He was subsequently extradited by the French authorities. As it turned out during the evaluation of his mobile phone data, he may have followed the manhunt against him. He had constantly googled relevant search terms in connection with his name, such as “Interpol wanted list 2022”. In addition, however, he had also typed “finding love in Paris” or “porn free – teenager” into the search mask.
According to a psychiatric report, the alleged double murderer was fully sane at the time of the crime. The hearing is scheduled to last until 5 p.m. If found guilty, the 49-year-old faces ten to 20 years in prison or life imprisonment.
Source: Nachrichten
