The psyche of A. (17)

“I wanted to kill because I was freezing cold”

(Bild: Holl Reinhard)

In the summer of 2023, a then 16-year-old went on a "manhunt" in Vienna, again and again. His victims: homeless people. Two men died, one woman was seriously injured. A forensic psychiatrist has now examined the boy - her diagnosis and how it came about that the teenager wanted nothing more than to murder.

Most of the day he lies quietly on his bed with his eyes closed. He is quiet when he goes for walks in the prison yard. In fact, he talks very little to other inmates. And when guards come into his cell, he greets them politely and asks politely how they are.

Thomas A. (name changed) is therefore considered a model inmate at Josefstadt prison. Which is hardly surprising. After all, the lad is practiced in hiding his dark side, the evil inside him, from the outside world.

The evil inside him ...

"I wanted to let my anger out"
 In July and August 2023, the now 17-year-old - aged just 16 - killed two men and seriously injured a woman in Vienna; he stabbed them with a stiletto knife "until I thought they were no longer alive", he later said during interrogations.