Life imprisonment

“Threw her all over the apartment”

The 40-year-old with his lawyer Ina-Christin Stiglitz in the Vienna Regional Court.

(Bild: Imre Antal)

He beat her with his fists, kicked her with full force against furniture - and finally strangled her for several minutes. Until the 49-year-old was dead. "Somehow a switch flipped in me," the accused Austrian in Vienna Landl tries to explain. Because of the unspeakable violence, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder - not legally binding.

In the beginning, everything seemed perfect between the couple: "After many failed relationships, the victim longed for true love," says the prosecutor. The 49-year-old finally met the Viennese man in 2022 via the dating platform Tinder. "The relationship was basically non-violent and harmonious." Until 25 August last year.

Unfounded jealousy
"I was in a very bad place mentally. I was plagued by fears of loss. She wasn't particularly faithful in the last few relationships. Men kept writing to her," says the 40-year-old. "Were you very jealous?" asks Judge Stefan Apostol - "Yes, you could say that." However, the Viennese man admits that she never cheated on him. On the contrary: she repeatedly assured him that she only loved him. 

"Five to ten minutes" squeezed shut
And even on the day of the gruesome bloody deed, there was neither an argument nor any other trigger for the unspeakable violence. He woke up in the morning, his girlfriend was still asleep next to him - he hit her and kicked her with full force. "I kicked her all over the apartment," he told the police. Finally, he put the 49-year-old in a headlock and squeezed. "About five to ten minutes. Then she stopped resisting," the accused recalls. But he doesn't let go.

Memorial candles for the victim

(Bild: Imre Antal)

In an emotionless voice - the call is played in the murder trial - he alerted the police: "I strangled my girlfriend. Please come here." Resuscitation was no longer possible.

Accused googled "femicide" before murder
The question of why is also getting louder and louder for the presiding judge. "You can't explain it rationally," says the blameless 40-year-old. His last separation had taken its toll on him, his father had died early and he had repeatedly struggled with bouts of depression. He also spoke of several suicide attempts. About a year before the murder, he began to deal with the murder of women. Shortly before the murder, he googled "life in Austria", "firearm" and "femicide". "This was a murder with intent", says court psychiatrist Peter Hofmann - the accused was certainly sane.

The victim had two daughters. They robbed them of their mother.

Richter Stefan Apostol

"We talk about you all the time. What fears of loss and problems you had. How you feel about it. The victim had two daughters. You robbed them of their mother. That's a very self-centered view," said Judge Apostol, returning to the actual topic. The private party representative is demanding 25,000 euros each for the two children - aged 21 and 22. "You can't put a price on that," Mr. Rat justifiably interjects.

"Particularly bestial procedure"
The jury's deliberations do not take long. They unanimously find Wiener guilty of murder. He receives the maximum sentence due to the "particularly bestial procedure", as Judge Stefan Apostol explains: life imprisonment - not legally binding. He closes the trial with the words: "Nobody wants to imagine what the victim went through in his last minutes."