defeat in court
The jury finds Boris Becker guilty – but the last ball has not yet been played
Boris Becker leaves the court in London
© Alberto Pezzali/AP/DPA
Boris Becker lost the decisive match for the time being: The jury in the London criminal trial found the star guilty of deliberately concealing parts of his assets. How to proceed now.
After hours of waiting in the drafty corridors of Southwark Crown Court, everything suddenly moves very quickly. One of the jurors in the London criminal trial against Boris Becker stands up and rattles off the unanimous decision of the jury on 24 points of the indictment every second. Four times the verdict is: “guilty”. The lay judges are convinced: the ex-tennis star deliberately did not fully disclose parts of his assets in the insolvency proceedings. According to the jury, among other things, he concealed a property in Leimen and illegally transferred large sums to other accounts.
Boris Becker found guilty
Just a few centimeters separate Boris Becker’s face from the pane of glass in front of which the words that will decide his future are being spoken. The young man, who announces the verdict on behalf of the entire jury, wears a black T-shirt, Becker pinstripe suit. The ex-professional’s face is red, his eyes fixed straight ahead.
Theoretically, Becker faces up to seven years in prison. Whether he actually ends up behind bars is not decided by the eleven jurors, but by the professional judge. The tremors will continue until April 29, when Judge Deborah Taylor plans to announce her sentence. Becker can still appeal – both against the guilty verdict and against the sentence.
The indictment had accused Becker of 24 counts of concealing parts of his assets – including real estate, accounts and some of the most important trophies of his career – during his bankruptcy proceedings and blaming his advisors, who he said managed his finances. Becker himself denied the allegations. His defense attorney said his client was naïve but innocent. It is not a crime to rely on advisors. In 20 out of 24 points, the jury followed this line of reasoning.
prosecutor relieved
But the four-count guilty verdict could be enough to change Becker’s life. Prosecutor Rebecca Chalkley, who sharply attacked the accused in the trial, is relieved. Is she happy with that? “Yes, I am,” she says when asked, nodding and smiling. For Chalkley, too, days are coming to an end that last consisted almost exclusively of waiting. “You never get used to it, no matter how many times you do it,” she admitted during the week. The jury had been debating since Wednesday afternoon, and everyone else had no choice but to wait for the long-awaited loudspeaker signal. Only the color of Boris Becker’s suits changed: black on Wednesday, grey-blue on Thursday and dark blue on Friday.
After the verdict, Becker, who endured a thunderstorm of flashbulbs outside day in and day out, remains tight-lipped. He does not answer reporter questions. His strategy of relying on his name and the accomplishments of his past has come to an end for now. On Friday afternoon, he takes the quickest route with his girlfriend and son Noah in a taxi. Both had supported him in the days of trembling in judgment and endured with him for hours.
A cigarette in front of the entrance or a sandwich from the courthouse kiosk on the ground floor – there hasn’t been more variety in the life of the once so glamorous star, who usually stays in the posher districts of the metropolis. Minutes before he was called into the courtroom over the loudspeakers for the sentencing hearing, the Londoner-by-choice was still sitting in a chair at the end of a hallway, his eyes closed and his legs stretched out on the stained red carpet.
Day in, day out, since the beginning of the trial almost three weeks ago, Becker had been sitting in the glass case reserved for the accused in the middle of courtroom 3. Whether his future whereabouts will be more comfortable is questionable.