Trial verdict in Upper Austria

“You couldn’t argue with Franz”

The nurse had to answer to the court in Ried on Tuesday.

(Bild: Daniel Scharinger, Krone KREATIV)

Why the pensioner (82) had to die as a result of a dozen stab wounds from the nurse is incomprehensible to his relatives. Because they knew "Franz" very differently than the defendant claimed in court in Ried on Tuesday. But the jury believed the family. The transport nurse received 20 years' imprisonment and a committal order.

"Franz was a kind-hearted person. You couldn't have argued with him." With this statement, the stepdaughter and the four siblings of the stabbed Franz (82) in the jury courtroom in Ried/I. really shook the responsibility of the 24-year-old defendant, who was still a man at the time of the crime. The carer, who was addressed as "Vanessa" at the request of everyone except expert witness Adelheid Kastner, stated that in October of the previous year in Geretsberg, she had stabbed her bedridden protégé, who was partially paralyzed following a stroke and whom she called "Grandpa", with two knives while intoxicated on 3.6 per mille because he had sexually harassed her and argued with her over chocolate and beer and the uncharged razor. "I was with my dad on the day of the crime, as I was almost every day, and he thought the razor thing was funny because a few hairs were left standing," the stepdaughter says tearfully. "There was no argument with 'Vanessa'."

Perpetrator in court

(Bild: Daniel Scharinger, Krone KREATIV)

"Only I knew she was a man"
She was the only one in the family who knew that the Slovakian nurse was actually a male nurse, not even the later victim. "I didn't tell anyone out of protection for 'Vanessa', because maybe she didn't want me to. And I didn't care, I accepted her as a woman." The two brothers and sisters, who reported a harmonious relationship with Franz, also never doubted the femininity of the nurse, who was always heavily made up and "dressed up".

"I told one of the nurses that I was transsexual," "Vanessa" testified and she said that the nurse then informed the caregiver and then Franz began to tease and grope the trans nurse. However, the sisters both denied this under an obligation to tell the truth.

Perpetrator and victim laughed on video
A video of the accused, which showed them joking with the later victim a few days before the crime, also contradicted the statement that she had been sexually harassed for some time. "That looks more like fun," said the judge.

Risk of recidivism is over 80 percent
Expert witness Adelheid Kastner, who referred to the accused as a man because he had undergone breast implants but made no other attempts to become a woman, identified a personality disorder and classified "Vanessa" in the second-highest risk category - the risk of reoffending within ten years is 82 percent. The psychiatrist identified a suspected trigger for the crime as a telephone argument between "Vanessa" and her boyfriend in Slovakia and, due to her personality structure, she had taken her anger out on her protégé.

Tears during the description of the crime
"He was the outlet," said public prosecutor Petra Stranzinger, who reported twelve stabs: four in the chest, one in the stomach and seven to the head. The relatives who followed the proceedings in the courtroom fought back tears when they heard that a knife had even broken off and the blade had penetrated the skull once: "That shows the brutality."
"Vanessa" remained motionless, but trembled when she heard that she "couldn't get anything together in life", only drug and alcohol abuse would be consistent. Stays in psychiatric wards were just as incomprehensible as a diagnosis of schizophrenia or borderline syndrome.

Swift verdict
Public defender Josef Wimmer referred to the blamelessness and the confession and asked for leniency. Prosecutor Petra Stranzinger demanded, in addition to the murder sentence, that the accused be committed to a forensic therapy center because of his dangerousness. After barely two hours, the jury unanimously agreed: it was murder. 20 years in prison and committal - the verdict is already final.