Three men have been sentenced to up to seven years and nine months in prison after a brutal attack on a sleeping couple. The Augsburg Regional Court did not convict the men on Wednesday of attempted murder, as the indictment said, but of dangerous and serious bodily harm.
The then 83-year-old homeowner and his 71-year-old wife were beaten up in bed and seriously injured. Both suffered numerous head injuries, the man was blind in one eye. In view of the consequences of the crime, the presiding judge, Franz Wörz, emphasized that the sensational crime had massively impaired the sense of security of the people in the Augsburg region.
On that December night in 2021, the burglars were looking for cash in the senior citizens’ home. After beating the residents, they fled without taking anything. The special commission of the Kripo was able to identify the accused 33, 34 and 38-year-old men because their mobile phones were logged into the network at the scene of the crime.
One of the men had planned the act but had not entered the house himself. He hired his two accomplices to do this. The mastermind had worked as a construction worker for the 83-year-old and had been paid large sums of money in cash several times. Therefore, he knew that his client had a large cash reserve in the house. In fact, more than 70,000 euros were hidden in the apartment on the night of the crime, but the burglars did not find the money.
The criminal court was convinced that the men had planned to beat up the spouses in order to find out where the money was hidden. A killing of the victims was not planned. Judge Wörz said in view of the case that such amounts of money should never be kept at home, but belonged in the bank. The sentences imposed by the Trial Chamber fell between the requests of the prosecution and the defense attorneys. The prosecutor and two defendants left an appeal open. The third accused, who, unlike the other two men, had made an extensive confession, announced that he intended to accept the verdict.