It was stupid, he apologized to the survivors accused of murdering a Prague teacher with a machete
“I would like to say Mrs. K. (of the murdered man’s wife, editor’s note), that I am very sorry for what happened, and I am terribly sorry to all the survivors. It was stupid, it’s terrible,” Řehák cried in front of the court after reading the testimony of the teacher’s wife, who also taught him.
That police said she doesn’t remember much about the day except that after the attack she came to her husband’s office, who was already being helped by another teacher, and saw him lying there covered in blood. She then tried to help her husband until a colleague forced her to go into the corridor.
“Then someone told me they saw a student running out of the office. I had no specific suspicions. They don’t remember a conflict or a dispute between their husband and Řehák,” the wife said in her statement.
He wanted to burn the teacher, a machete was faster. According to the indictment, the young man planned the murder in Prague
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She added that she was certain that Řehák never came to her husband for a consultation. According to Řehák’s previous testimony, during one consultation, the teacher was supposed to slap him, but according to the young man, he did not tell anyone.
In addition to occasional sobbing, Řehák had his head bowed during the trial. Psychological and psychiatric assessments were also heard during the meeting.
According to experts in the field of psychology, Řehák suffers from mixed developmental dysphasia, which made it difficult for him to communicate and understand, so he needed special treatment at school in order to understand sufficiently.
In addition, his mental age does not correspond to his peers.
He couldn’t handle the exam
“The intellect of the assessee is good, he realized that killing someone is wrong. He gradually developed an internalized affect, he had the feeling that the teacher was drowning him on purpose,” noted Vlastimil Tichý, a forensic expert and head of psychiatry at Prague’s Central Military Hospital.
“He received exact questions, he studied for it, but it was enough that there was a deviation from the question during the exam, and he did not react enough,” added Tichý.
The final straw, he said, was when the defendant’s mother told him about failing the exams and the possibility that he would have to drop out of school.
State representative Jana Murínová drew attention to the fact that during the interrogation Řehák claimed that during the crime he felt as if the devil had entered him and it was not him.
“It’s a backhanded explanation that he wasn’t the one who did such a horrible act. He said it under the influence of emotion. He realizes that killing a person is wrong,” stated Tichý.
According to an expert in the field of psychology, he pointed out that Řehák was studying, but without success in the exams, and this led to frustration. He was under the constant fear of what would come of testing that he finally decided to eliminate its cause – the teacher.
He faces 14 years
Both experts suggested that, in the event of a prison sentence, he should be placed in a lower-security facility. Řehák is accused of murder, for which he faces 12 to 20 years in prison. The public prosecutor proposed a sentence in the lower half of the criminal range, i.e. around 14 years in prison.
The young man is accused of murdering the teacher on March 31, who the day before had declared him insufficient in the subject of communication technology.
He provoked me, the man accused of murdering a teacher with a machete told the court
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Originally, the young man wanted to burn the teacher, ordering gasoline and a lighter on the Internet. In the end, however, he decided to resolve the situation immediately, as his mother told him that if it was not resolved, he would have to change the situation.
According to the investigators, the student pretended to go for a walk, took with him a 60-centimeter machete, a knife and gloves. He came to the school in Ohradní Street, where he hid in the toilets and waited for the teacher to enter his office.
There he attacked him, inflicting several blows on his head, neck and back. Doctors could no longer help the victim.
According to the prosecutor, the young man left the gun in the cabinet. He jumped out of the school window on the ground floor, because the porter would have to open the main entrance for him. Then he took the train to the pedestrian zone in Zbraslav, where he cleaned his clothes of blood. His grandfather sent him. The young man was then detained by the police.
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