The verdict in the trial against star footballer Jérôme Boateng has been made: for deliberate bodily harm to his ex-partner, he has to pay a fine of 60 daily rates of 30,000 euros each, i.e. 1.8 million euros. It is the highest possible daily rate. The judgment was announced by the Munich District Court on Thursday evening. It is not yet final.
Prosecutor: Boateng also became a “victim”
In the evening, the public prosecutor had demanded a suspended sentence of one and a half years for Boateng and a monetary issue of 1.5 million euros. He is charged with attacking his former partner in July 2018 while on vacation in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. Public prosecutor Stefanie Eckert described the woman as a “victim of domestic violence”. However, not only she became a victim, but also Boateng – “a victim of their joint toxic relationship”.
According to the public prosecutor, the required amount of money arises from the fact that she assumes that he earned 33,000 euros per day at FC Bayern Munich. She took that from media reports. Even after moving to Olympique Lyon, he still earns at least 20,000 euros a day.
In a dark blue suit and white shirt, the former FC Bayern player Jérôme Boateng appeared in the hearing in the district court of Munich that morning – amid great media hype. At the start of the trial, Boateng had denied the allegations.
Boateng is said to have attacked his ex-girlfriend while on vacation
“He grabbed my eye with his thumb,” said Boateng’s ex-girlfriend in court. “He tore my hair, then bit me in the head”. He spat on her. She then fell on her knees before he “punched her in the kidney” so hard that she could no longer breathe. According to public prosecutor Eckert, he is also said to have thrown a glass lantern and a cooler bag at her “in full force”. As a result, the woman suffered swelling on her face and a hematoma on her eye.
Boateng: An argument over a card game
Boateng described the incident in court differently: He did not throw a lantern at her, but a pillow against a table – and the lantern fell to the floor. He emphasizes that he has never beaten his ex-girlfriend.
A young woman, who was friends with the two of them on vacation and at the time with the alleged victim, claims to have seen something different: Boateng had “started to hit them – with his fists”. She then ran off and got a friend of the soccer player to intervene. She herself was afraid of Boateng, “afraid of maybe getting something too”. And further: “He’s just a great man.”
They played cards together with friends on vacation in the evening, says Boateng. Until then, the vacation was very nice and peaceful. “It was a good mood,” he said – until the deck of cards. After his ex-girlfriend and her girlfriend accused him of cheating while playing cards, the mood escalated. They would then have – as often before – argued over the question of how to organize their lives. His former partner had become aggressive and insulting, injured his lip in an argument and hit him. When he tried to push her away from him, she fell.
He jumped up from the table with a jerk, whereupon glasses and also the lantern that was on the table broke. He also kicked a cooler bag on the floor in the direction of his girlfriend. But Boateng denies the injuries to the face. The friends should then have intervened.
“Jealousy film” and a fight over loyalty
The dispute was about loyalty, about other, former partners. “Jealousy film,” says the partner at some point in her testimony. Her and Boateng’s testimony are bursting with strong expressions that are said to have been used on July 19 in the vacation paradise. Between outbursts of anger, Boateng ran back and forth in his bungalow, she says – “like a tiger”.
Boateng says that back then – as often before – they argued about the question of how to organize family life. Boateng wanted to move from Bayern to Paris that summer.
The next day, however, the two had made up again. “We had spoken to each other, made up, the children were happy and danced.” She was “in a good mood”.
The ex-national player appeared relaxed in his remarks. At his side: attorney Kai Walden, who already stressed in the run-up to the trial that it was testimony against testimony.
Witness: Boateng spat on his girlfriend and hit him with his fists
The girlfriend of Boateng’s ex-girlfriend also described the dispute and how it escalated. Accordingly, the footballer cheated several times in the card game “Skipbo”. When the friend of Boateng’s former life partner confronted the footballer, he had become abusive. A short time later, the former partner and Boateng began to argue. Both are said to have insulted each other. Then, according to the witness, Boateng is said to have thrown a pillow in the direction of his former partner.
Boateng is said to have kicked the lantern in the direction of his ex and not tossed it. The witness in the courtroom could not remember the throw with a cooler bag. Contrary to Boateng’s allegation, according to the witness, the former partner was not drunk on the evening in question. A short time later, according to the witness, Boateng spat on his ex-girlfriend and then, according to the witness, pulled her off the couch by the left leg and finally hit her face with his fists.
The former partner is said to have protected herself with her arms. Apparently, according to the witness, Boateng injured his lip. A short time later, Boateng got loud again and asked for the T-shirt with blood splatters to be returned. The witness was on vacation on that evening on the Caribbean island with the ex and Jerome Boateng and a friend of the soccer player.
Expert supports version of victim
An expert supported the alleged victim’s description in the evening with his assessment: “The findings that were documented here can largely be reconciled with the accused’s description of the course of events,” said the doctor on Thursday in front of the Munich district court. In the evening the evidence was closed.
Another argument about children
The court had set only one day for the trial of Boateng. However, the hearing dragged on until Thursday evening. Boateng and his ex-girlfriend are also in an ongoing legal dispute over the right of residence of their daughters who currently live with Boateng. This is reported by the sports information service SID.
Towards the end of the hearing, the public prosecutor announced that calls from “other injured parties” had been received. However, these had nothing to do with the incidents surrounding the process.
The luxury pavilions that Boateng and his tour group lived in had a very special extra, as the footballer describes: There was a butler. That night he also swept up the broken pieces of the lantern and glasses. “Then I said – in English: Sorry for the mess,” says Boateng: Sorry for the mess.