Trial in Feldkirch

Mentally ill man threatened passer-by with axe

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

A mentally ill man felt harassed by a passer-by and threatened to ram an axe into his back. Trial at the Feldkirch Regional Court.

It was February 27, 2024, when the man marched from Montafon to Bludenz with an axe in his hand. Because he felt threatened by an oncoming dog owner who was walking his four-legged friend, the mentally ill man went berserk. First he insults the man as a Nazi. Then he stands up in front of the unsuspecting man and threatens: "Turn around - or do you want an axe stuck in your back?"

Haller diagnoses paranoid schizophrenia
Frightened, the victim turns around and hurries back home with his four-legged friend. But the axe-wielding man is hot on his heels. What the fugitive doesn't know at the time is that his pursuer is a 34-year-old mental patient. When neighbors witness the axe man threatening the victim again and demolishing a garbage can with his weapon, they alert the police - who then arrest the deranged man. It quickly becomes clear that the arrested man is mentally ill. The man is therefore transferred to Rankweil Regional Hospital. In his expert opinion, primary physician Reinhard Haller comes to the conclusion that the man suffers from paranoid schizophrenia due to his former heavy drug use. This had already been diagnosed ten years ago.

Public prosecutor Karin Dragosits agreed with the statements made by expert witness Reinhard Haller and called for the person concerned to be committed, saying: "It's about protecting the defendant from himself and society from him."

(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

However, the patient discontinued outpatient treatment each time because he did not want to take medication. This was last the case in 2018, as the mentally ill man himself admitted in the jury trial on Monday. His reason: he wanted to be strong. He remembers the crime on February 27 well. "I heard a foreign voice in my head telling me to take an axe to the mosque and hand it over to a man. It was a very friendly voice." He explains to the judge: "You know, I was very bored in the past and felt lonely all the time. That's when the friendships with the voices in my head came about." The person concerned is now placed in a forensic therapy facility by court order.