Pushed out of window

Two colleagues killed in hotel: Trial in Vienna

A psychiatric report found that the 34-year-old Czech construction worker was not sane.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

A construction worker who brutally killed two colleagues within a week in a hotel in Vienna-Alsergrund in July 2024 stood trial on Monday. He did not have to answer for double murder.

The Vienna public prosecutor's office requested that the man be placed in a forensic therapy center due to his mental disorder. He is not capable of guilt. The jury is already deliberating.

Paranoid schizophrenia
A psychiatric report obtained by the prosecution revealed that the 35-year-old was under the influence of a persistent and severe paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the crimes, which broke out as early as 2007, and that this was a decisive factor in his actions. He had maltreated the two victims with numerous punches and kicks and pushed one of them out of a window on the fourth floor.

Felt "threatened" by the men
He explained that he had felt "threatened" by the two men. They "belonged to the mafia". They were responsible for murders in the Czech Republic, which is why he had to kill them. During his interrogation by the police, the 35-year-old gave the names of several men who had allegedly been killed in the Czech Republic.

(Bild: Bischofberger-Mahr Alexander)

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

The police then investigated and came to the conclusion that one of the alleged murder victims was still alive, a second person had died in a tractor accident in Austria and the other names were not real people. The statements made by the man during his interrogation and his overall impression had already raised doubts about his sanity among police investigators.

Two weeks before the first killing in Vienna, the man called the police in the Czech Republic because he felt threatened. Czech officers took him to a psychiatric clinic, but he was quickly released from there.

"Brutality hard to beat"
The psychiatric expert Peter Hofmann classified the man as sane, but also dangerous. "What he did to the two victims can hardly be surpassed in terms of brutality", said Hofmann. "His aim was to completely destroy this person."

His aim was to completely destroy this person.

Psychiatrischer Sachverständiger Peter Hofmann

Hofmann described the man concerned as a "schizophrenic serial offender" and it was highly likely that the 35-year-old would commit another punishable offense with serious consequences in the foreseeable future under the influence of the illness. The expert therefore recommended that the man be placed in a forensic therapy center for an indefinite period of time. He is currently being treated with a depot injection every four weeks, but it will take "an appropriate amount of time for the treatment to take effect", said the expert.

Second victim discovered with a smashed skull
The first death - the 44-year-old fell out of the window - was initially assumed to be an accident or suicide. When a second colleague of the Czech man was found in the same hotel a week later with his skull bashed in, the law enforcement authorities changed their assessment.

The body of the first victim, which had already been transferred to Slovakia, was then autopsied after all and the forensic medicine found that the man had been beaten before his fall. As the investigations revealed, the 35-year-old returned to Vienna specifically for the second homicide.

On July 23, he obtained an access card for the 29-year-old's room and then attacked him with extreme brutality. He had worked together with the two victims from Slovakia in the same company, which had accommodated the workers in a hotel not far from Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof.

Traced by arrest warrant
The man involved was quickly tracked down and arrested in the Czech Republic on the basis of a European arrest warrant just one day after his last crime. A few days later he was handed over to the Austrian authorities. He confessed to the facts, but claimed that he had been threatened by the men.

Not an isolated case
The 35-year-old has already stood trial for a similar offense in his home country. He spent seven years in prison for assault because he wanted to confront an alleged murderer. A psychiatric report was drawn up at the time, but the expert at the time was unable to identify any mental illness. His client had been "under enormous pressure" to be constantly threatened, said his lawyer Wolfgang Ebner.