crime
Murder trial against three teenagers: admission announced
Investigators at the site where the body was found in Horn-Bad Meinberg at the end of October 2023. Photo
© Christian Müller/Westfalennews/dpa
A homeless man becomes a victim – and probably by accident. Three young people are on trial in Detmold because of this. They are said to have attacked the 47-year-old in order to film their crime. The man died.
Three young people have to appear before the regional court Detmold is responsible for the alleged murder of a 47-year-old man. Last October, after consuming alcohol and drugs, the 15-year-old defendants are said to have accidentally met the later victim, a homeless man, on the outside area of a kindergarten in the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Horn-Bad Meinberg and then attacked them.
At the start of the trial, the defendants made confessions. One also admitted the stabbings. The other two, however, said they knew nothing about the knife and mistook the stabs for blows. The defense attorneys had announced in advance that the defendants would enter the case. During the further course of the trial, 14 witnesses were to be heard.
Young people distributed video of the attack
The public prosecutor’s office assumes that the young people physically attacked the 47-year-old in order to film the event. One of the defendants is said to have stabbed the 47-year-old at least four times with a knife after he was said to have fallen to the ground due to punches. The man is said to have died from the stab wounds after the teenagers left the scene. The defendants, who were 14 and 15 years old at the time of the crime, were quickly identified because they filmed the attack with a cell phone and distributed the video.
The large youth chamber as a jury court hears the case behind closed doors due to the age of the defendants – visitors and media representatives are not allowed in the hall, only parents are allowed as spectators. One of the things that the youth chamber needs to clarify is whether two of the three young people even knew that the third had a knife with them.
Psychiatric experts are supposed to examine the defendant’s ability to understand and his guilt. In German criminal law, only those who have acted culpably can be punished. The prerequisite for this is insight and control skills. In the case of young people of criminal responsibility, their maturity to recognize the injustice of the crime and to act accordingly must be positively established. In juvenile proceedings, the focus is on the idea of education. The maximum sentence for murder in juvenile criminal law is ten years. The court is expected to announce a verdict on Friday.