Water damage: cleaning lady protests innocence – salzburg.ORF.at
court
The cleaning lady who is said to have flooded the Mirabell Palace in the city of Salzburg protested her innocence in court on Tuesday. And the matter does not seem to be absolutely clear.
The water damage in the listed Mirabell Palace is immense, according to the indictment 170,000 euros. Several floors are affected. The water ran there from Friday to Monday in April 2022 and a 41-year-old Turkish woman is said to be the perpetrator. According to the public prosecutor’s office, she is the only one who opened the doors of the three offices on the first floor with an electronic key card at the time. A technical defect is excluded.
Trial contract was not extended
The Turkish woman was a cleaning lady for ten years before she moved to Mirabell Palace, ten years to her complete satisfaction, says the defense attorney. There is no motive, no reason to intentionally turn on the water and let it run for a weekend. The prosecution, on the other hand, very well looks like a motive: namely that her trial contract was not extended.
A judgment will probably not be spoken on Tuesday. Because the responsible judge WILL get a plumber’s report on the question of when the water started to flow and whether it was really during the accused’s working hours or not.
Renovation in progress
In any case, renovation work is underway in Mirabell Palace. The sink in question has been removed, carpenters are laying wooden floors there again on the first floor, on the ground floor below there is large scaffolding to be able to repair the water damage to walls and ceilings, says Karl Schupfer, spokesman for the city of Salzburg. “The ceiling needs to be layered appropriately, as was the historical one. The cornices have to be drawn out by hand – also as was historically intended.”