Neck slashed

Defendant denies attempted murder for the third time

The defendant in court, accompanied by the court guards.

(Bild: Pressefoto Scharinger © Daniel Scharinger, Krone KREATIV)

While he was sleeping, a 33-year-old woman allegedly slashed the neck of her husband (43) with a blade - which is why the accused is standing trial for the third time on Monday for attempted murder in Ried. And for the third time, the woman claims: I am innocent.

In the first trial, the jury had suspended the verdict, which was only for grievous bodily harm; in the second trial, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict because a witness had not been heard. In the earlier proceedings, the woman had accused her daughter, who was 13 years old at the time of the crime. This time, too, she pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution accuses the woman of mixing sedative medication into the food of her husband, with whom she has four children, in the summer of 2022 and inflicting a 22-centimetre-long cut on his neck with a Stanley knife or razor blade while he was sleeping, "undoubtedly to make him bleed to death", the public prosecutor is convinced. The murder weapon has not yet been clearly identified. The victim survived thanks to emergency surgery.

Course of events unclear
The defense pointed out several open points: The murder weapon was unknown, there were no witnesses to the crime and no blood spatter had been found on the accused. The 33-year-old herself pleaded not guilty. She described her relationship with her husband as "broken" and accused him of rudeness and violence. The relationship with her daughter was difficult.

The course of events is still unclear. In her first interrogation, the woman claimed that her husband had attacked her and that she had grabbed a box cutter in self-defense and fought back. She later denied this and blamed her daughter. This time, she remained vague: she suspected that it could have been her daughter, but "I didn't see her, I can't say whether it was her".

"A flexible approach to the truth"
From her statements, but also from the witness statements, there are different versions of what could have happened on the night of the crime. For example, the accused's former lover had told the police that his girlfriend had called him and said that her husband was lying in bed bleeding. However, this phone call took place more than an hour before the actual time of the crime, the presiding judge wondered. When confronted with contradictions, the woman usually responded with "I don't know"; she had already referred to gaps in her memory several times during the interrogations.

There were also many inconsistencies regarding other stories from the woman's life - such as serious illnesses, sexual assaults, etc. The presiding judge ultimately came to the conclusion: "So everyone else is lying" and recommended that the defendant speak to her defense lawyer again. The psychiatric expert Adelheid Kastner attested to the defendant's emotional instability, a "histrionic disorder" and a "flexible approach to the truth".

Children were in the house
The couple's three younger children slept on the upper floor during the time of the crime; in addition to the defendant and her husband, their 13-year-old daughter and a nephew from the Czech Republic, who is not expected to speak German, were also in the house. He had refused to testify in the first trial. As he was not questioned in the second round of proceedings, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict. The case must now be heard for the third time. This time, the court has scheduled four trial days.

On Monday morning, the presiding judge went through the course of events on the day of the crime in detail with the defendant. The hearing of the victim is scheduled for the afternoon. A verdict is expected on Monday next week.