justice
“Horror house” case: Court negotiates preventive detention
Wilfried W. was sentenced to eleven years in prison in 2018. photo
© Friso Gentsch/dpa
For years he tormented women, two died. He was convicted in the “Horror House” trial – but classified as less criminally responsible. Now judges have to make a new decision: How dangerous is Wilfried W.?
Almost five years after the verdicts in the process of the so-called Horrorhaus von Höxter, the perpetrator who was convicted at the time is again before the Paderborn district court. As of today, the judges will deal with the question of whether the 53-year-old Wilfried W. has to be placed in preventive detention after serving his sentence. The decisive factor is how dangerous experts consider him to be.
W. was sentenced to eleven years in prison in 2018. Together with his ex-wife, who was also convicted, he had tortured several women in the house near Höxter in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia for years. Two of the victims from Lower Saxony died completely exhausted after months of severe abuse. The court initially classified the 53-year-old as less criminally responsible and admitted him to a psychiatric ward. However, there were doubts about its limited controllability.
In 2020, a court concluded he did not have any serious mental disorders that limited his judgment. He has been in regular prison ever since. The public prosecutor’s office then applied for preventive detention, which the court intends to negotiate by the end of September.