41-year-old in Salzburg for attempted murder of his girlfriend in court
The defendant is said to have stabbed the woman twice in the chest with a knife. In the process at the Salzburg Regional Court, he vehemently entered the allegation; he claimed that his ex-girlfriend probably stabbed himself with the knife.
On Tuesday, a 41-year-old man had to answer to a jury for attempted murder at the Salzburg Regional Court. The early retiree is said to have stabbed his then girlfriend twice in the chest in Zell am See in April 2021. The woman was in acute danger of death and had to undergo emergency surgery. The defendant pleaded not guilty. He said he did not start the crime and is innocent in jail.
For the public prosecutor’s office, however, the matter is clear: The couple is said to have consumed alcohol together before the crime, which led to an argument. The woman then locked herself in the bedroom. When she opened the door again, the defendant was standing behind the door, stabbed and said: “Everything will be fine, my darling”. Then he is said to have washed the knife and called the emergency services.
On the phone, the man reported to the emergency services: “I was just about to kill my wife.” Shortly afterwards, however, the 41-year-old told the police that there was a third person in the apartment. “But there is no evidence for that,” emphasized the prosecutor today. “All traces come from the accused and the victim.” The man later presented a second version: the woman injured herself.
“My client cannot explain why the woman accuses him. According to the forensic medical report, self-supply was possible. “In addition, the victim’s descriptions cannot be reconciled with the traces.” For example, no traces of blood were found in front of the bedroom door, but on the couch in the living room.
“After the many violent crimes this year you will think to yourself: Another man who killed or wanted to kill his wife. But things are different here,” said the lawyer and asked the jury to go to the trial with an open mind. “My client has no motive.” He himself had around two per thousand alcohol in his blood, the woman 1.2 per thousand.
It is also certain that the victim and the accused met in 2017 during alcohol withdrawal. THEY became friends and developed a relationship with each other – which was noisy defender but was characterized by emotional dependence and massive alcohol abuse. Nevertheless, the Austrian Niederer, who was judicially innocent, moved to his wife in Salzburg. There, however, she falsely accused him of beating her several times. “In addition, the victim repeatedly expresses suicidal intentions and has severe psychological problems.”
Her client always called the rescue and the police in the event of escalations and then briefly distanced the victim. “That he wanted to kill her because she took too little alcohol from shopping, as the woman said, is incomprehensible.” Because two hours before the crime, they not only ordered food from a pizzeria, but also six cans of beer and two bottles of wine.
The defendant himself emphasized today that there was no argument on the day of the crime. After dinner he lay down on the couch and fell asleep. When he was awake, his girlfriend was lying next to him – with the knife in her chest. “At first I thought she was making a stupid pathologist joke,” he said. His girlfriend had a weakness for crime and pathology series and also pretended to be a doctor. “But then I noticed that she was gasping and unable to breathe. So I pulled out the knife and called the ambulance.”
The fact that he said on the emergency call that he had just wanted to kill his partner was due to the shock, for a long time his defense attorney. “When he saw the knife in his chest, his first reaction was to believe that it must have been him.”
The verdict was expected on Tuesday evening.