Trial in Vienna

Embarrassing: Mugshot showed the wrong person

The police used this mugshot (left) to search for the accused. The court finds that it was not him who stabbed a parcel delivery man in Vienna.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/LPD Wien stock.adobe.com, )

A parcel delivery man was stabbed out of nowhere in Vienna last summer. The victim claims to have recognized the perpetrator a short time later as he was leaving a supermarket. The police released a picture of the man who was accused, taken by the store's surveillance cameras. But during the trial, it becomes clear that a number of things may have gone wrong during the investigation. 

Imagine you buy a drink in the supermarket on the way to your stepdaughter's school. A short time later, your picture from the store appears in the media. The Vienna police are looking for you because of a serious crime. You turn yourself in. Because of the proceedings, you lose your job and your girlfriend and face up to ten years in prison.

Delivery man collapsed in front of supermarket covered in blood
This is what happened to a Serbian-born man in Vienna. "I didn't do anything", he affirms in tears during the trial. The Vienna public prosecutor's office sees it differently: on June 26, 2023, the defendant allegedly attacked a parcel delivery man with a knife out of nowhere in Wagramer Straße and seriously injured him.

Why do you throw the parcels on the ground with full force?

Der Täter zum Paketzusteller, ehe er zustach.

"I was on my way to a customer and put my bag down. Then the man came and said 'Why are you throwing the parcels on the floor with all your might'," the 28-year-old victim recalls the brief conversation before he was attacked. The delivery man dragged himself a few streets away and collapsed in front of a supermarket, covered in blood. During the first aid treatment, the seriously injured delivery man shouted: "That's him!" and was referring to a man who was comfortably walking out of the store - the man who has now been charged.

Police officer speaks of a chaotic crime scene
And this despite the fact that the features - neither clothing nor appearance - did not quite match and the investigation work was obviously characterized by mistakes. For example, a description of the perpetrator was allegedly only obtained from the victim after he had been shown the photographs (and apparently only those of the Serbian). A police officer testified during the trial that the work on site was not very professional: On evidence, "neither fingerprints nor DNA had been secured. It was a chaotic crime scene."

They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Richterin Bahr nach dem glatten Freispruch.

No bloodstains, wrong shoe color
The fact that a man who had allegedly just stabbed someone was calmly buying himself a soft drink after the crime should not have surprised either the investigators or the prosecution. No traces of blood can be seen in the pictures, although it had literally spurted out of the stab wound in the thigh. The color of the shoes also did not match the description of the perpetrator.

Judge Hannelore Bahr pronounces an outright acquittal, not legally binding: "You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time", she says.