"Nightmare" for victims

Trial: Burglars struck with crowbars

Two of the defendants: The Romanian in the green T-shirt was shot during the escape.

(Bild: Sophie Pratschner, Krone KREATIV)

The accusation in Vienna Regional Court: On February 7, four Romanians broke into a detached house in Würnitz in Lower Austria. However, when they surprised the resident, they did not flee but brutally beat the woman. The jury senate has now handed down long prison sentences for the quartet.

"So you knew that there would be a person inside?" asks Mr. Rat in the Vienna regional court. "Yes." And yet, at one o'clock in the morning on February 7, the four men climbed over the fence of the detached house wearing masks and broke down the front door. You would have thought that the residents would be fast asleep at that time of night - but that wasn't the case. 

Woman beaten with crowbar 
Awakened by the noise, the wife suddenly stood in the hallway. The prosecutor begins to describe how the four accused Romanians brought the victim to the floor, held her down and beat her. The 51-year-old remembers the devastating night: "They came at me immediately, without saying a word, with an iron bar. I dodged, it only hit me on the right side of the head."

I was afraid he would kill me. He covered my mouth. I bit him. It was like a nightmare.

51-jähriges Opfer im Wiener Landesgericht

Burglar shot
Alarmed by his wife's cries for help, the 71-year-old homeowner stormed out of the bedroom and saw the horrific scene. "He goes back to the bedside cabinet and picks up his revolver," says the prosecutor. The Lower Austrian pulls the trigger three times, putting the brutal burglars to flight. And even hits one of the Romanians. His accomplices leave him seriously injured ...

In the course of the investigation, the 47-year-old man who was shot incriminates the three fugitives. They were eventually arrested abroad and all four are now sitting in the large jury courtroom.

Philipp Winkler is representing the second defendant, who is alleged to have planned the crime - and not for the first time.

(Bild: Gerhard Bartel)

Not the first home invasion
The home invasion was allegedly planned by a 40-year-old Romanian. And not for the first time: he was already sentenced to four years in prison in 2017. Back then, he also broke into a house and stuffed clothes into the victims' mouths to stop them from screaming. Now the client of defense lawyer Philipp Winkler says in court: "I would like to start by asking the couple for forgiveness."

Like his co-defendants, he pleads guilty. "What he denies is that he was the organizer. He says they all planned it together," said defense attorney Winkler.

The panel of lay assessors nevertheless sees him as the main perpetrator: he receives 16 years in prison - the aggravated sentence would have given him 20 years in prison. The youngest accomplice (24) is sentenced to ten years in prison; two accomplices to eight and a half years each. Some of the sentences are final.