15 years imprisonment

Guilty verdict at third trial

The jury court unanimously found the defendant (left) guilty.

(Bild: Scharinger Daniel/Pressefoto Scharinger © Daniel Scharinger)

With a vote of 8:0, the jury found a 33-year-old woman guilty on Monday afternoon in Ried Regional Court. She is said to have mixed pills into her husband's food and then tried to cut his neck open. The jury court sentenced the woman to 15 years in prison. She must also pay the victim 3,000 euros in partial compensation for pain and suffering. The verdict is not yet final.

The trial against a 33-year-old woman for a knife attack on her husband reached its final stage on Monday at the regional court in Ried im Innkreis. The woman was charged with attempted murder. She repeatedly claimed that her then 13-year-old daughter had committed the crime. The trial was already in its third legal round.

Witness recused himself
In the first trial, the jury had suspended the verdict, which had only been for grievous bodily harm. In the second, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict because a witness, who had recused himself the first time, had not been heard. The trial had to be restarted. The offending witness was summoned this time, but he again refused to testify.

Emergency operation saved victim
The prosecution accused 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 a razor blade while he was sleeping, "undoubtedly to make him bleed to death", the public prosecutor was convinced. The murder weapon has not yet been clearly identified. The victim survived thanks to emergency surgery.

Self-defense claimed
In her first interrogation on the night of the crime, the woman claimed that her husband had attacked her and that she had grabbed a box cutter in self-defense. She later denied this and blamed her daughter. This time she remained vague: she suspected that it could have been her daughter, but had not seen it.

Creative handling of the truth
According to psychiatric expert Adelheid Kastner, the memory gaps to which she occasionally referred are medically incomprehensible. Kastner attested to the defendant's "creative handling of the truth" and "self-centeredness". She escalates in conflict situations, "one thing counts above all: how she feels", said the expert. However, the accused did not pose a danger to the general public.

Insidiousness had an aggravating effect
The jury unanimously found the defendant guilty of attempted murder. She was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison. The fact that she had no criminal record, that it was only an attempt and the long duration of the trial were seen as mitigating factors. The court considered the insidiousness of the attack and the fact that the woman had accused her daughter of the crime and had "thrown down the gauntlet" to be aggravating factors.

The woman's defense lawyer immediately lodged an appeal for annulment and an appeal. The public prosecutor's office made no statement. The verdict is therefore not yet final.