Attempted murder trial

Bloody deed in the park: Kurti P. faces 32nd criminal conviction

The 54-year-old from Lower Austria is brought before the court in Vienna's Landl district - a familiar situation for him.

(Bild: Bissuti Kristian/Bissuti Kristian , Krone KREATIV)

He became addicted to drugs at the age of 13, followed quickly by his first offense. Since then, Kurti P. has spent 28 years of his life in prison. "I had the best time in prison," he says. However, he is now sitting in front of a jury for the first time in Vienna's regional court - the charge is attempted murder. 

"They have a lot of court experience. But you've never sat in front of a jury before," says Judge Wolfgang Etl, addressing the 54-year-old in Vienna's Landl district. Followed by the reading out of Kurti P.'s criminal record - there are 31 of them ...

"My client is no saint"
With each previous conviction, trial observers gain an insight into the past of the native of Lower Austria. He was convicted for the first time in 1987; his first prison sentence followed in the same year. "My client is no altar boy, no saint," his lawyer Elmar Kresbach admits. The 54-year-old has already spent a total of 28 years in prisons.

If I'm not feeling well mentally, I'll take anything.

Der 31-fach Vorbestrafte im Prozess

However, the charge he is now facing is the most serious so far: attempted murder! On the afternoon of June 7, he met up with friends in Fritz-Imhoff-Park - to take drugs. "If I'm not feeling well mentally, I'll do anything," Kurti confessed to the jury. He had already slipped into the drug scene when he was 13 years old: "I started at Karlsplatz." The background: his violent and alcoholic father, his absent mother and later abuse in the children's home ...

The crime scene in Fritz-Imhoff-Park

(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

"I was never helped - I mean psychologically. I was best off in the prisons. I had medical care there. The last time I got out of prison, I didn't get any help. I never got a chance. I ended up on the street and then I went back into the drug scene," says the 54-year-old in the dock. And that's where the bloody confrontation took place on the day of the crime. Completely drugged up, he got into an argument with a Syrian asylum seeker. 

He was the first to stab Kurti P. in the stomach with a small knife. The Lower Austrian then grabbed a bread knife - "The victim screamed stop. Then the accused continued to stab him", said the public prosecutor. "It can be assumed that he stabbed him out of anger." There was blood spatter all over the park. He would have had at least a conditional intent to murder.

Defense lawyer Elmar Kresbach has already represented Kurti P. in one or two other trials.

(Bild: Bissuti Kristian/Kristian Bissuti)

However, defense attorney Elmar Kresbach does not agree with this at all: "Nobody thought anything of it. They were all - excuse the expression - bum zua." His client had acted in self-defense and had been attacked first. "He kept saying to me that he had never seen anyone as aggressive as this asylum seeker. And that means something given his past life." 

Kresbach appeals to the jury to also consider the possibility of intoxication - this offense is punishable by a maximum of three years. The jury's decision will probably be clarified on a second day of the trial. Two witnesses will not appear at the trial. Kurti P. will probably serve a 32nd previous conviction in any case ...