Process: Women pushed to suicide – court imposed maximum sentence

process
Women urged to commit suicide – court imposes maximum sentence

Three women find themselves in life crises, are mentally ill and unstable – and in this situation they also become the victims of perfidious manipulation.

The Limburg district court sentenced a 62-year-old to life imprisonment on Tuesday because the judges were convinced that he urged the women to commit suicide or attempted to do so. The three women connect that the accused “lived out his sexual sadism on them,” said the presiding judge on the motive. Two of the women from the Limburg (Hesse) area and from Bavaria did not come to the extreme, but one woman from Bremen died.

The court found the German guilty of murder and attempted murder. In addition, the court found it proven that he had consented to murder. It recognized the particular severity of the guilt – which usually rules out early release after 15 years – and ordered preventive detention. Because the judges considered the previously convicted man dangerous for the general public.

Contact sought in self-help forums

According to the findings of the court, between 2012 and 2016 the accused had sought contact with the mentally ill or unstable women in online self-help forums. He is then said to have massively harassed and manipulated them via chat, so that they kill themselves or leave it to him.

An expert had attested to the accused a “sexual sadism”. He is said to have lived it out with prostitutes and put them in fear of death with execution scenarios that had not been agreed upon.

Then, in 2012, the court said the accused contacted a woman in therapy and offered to kill her. It didn’t come to that in the end because the victim confided in her mother. In 2015, the man took advantage of the second victim’s insecurity and instability to “push it into a state of inertia”. Only at the last moment did the woman stop attempting suicide.

In 2016, according to the court, the woman from Bremen died from strangulation after the accused had massively edited her via chat on this topic. According to the presiding judge, it was not possible to finally clarify whether it was a suicide or an accident. However, he assumed that the woman did not want to kill herself. Unlike the defendant, she was not aware of the danger of her actions. He played “a gamble” with the woman’s life, which he was indifferent to.

Victim made «a tool against himself»

The court assumed a so-called indirect perpetration. This means that the 62-year-old had made the victims “a tool against themselves”. With their judgment, the judges followed the demands of the public prosecutor’s office and the joint prosecutor, the defense had pleaded for acquittal on all counts. It was “not in the beginning” to recognize a killing intention of the 62-year-old.

According to the prosecutor, the accused admitted in the process that he had had contact with the women, but stated that he was asking for help. He wanted to scare them to death to show them the value of life.

The co-plaintiff recalled the consequences for the victims: One of the women suffered greatly from the fact that someone “from outside” had “taken control of” her thoughts. And the later fatality was “cheerful”. “She wanted to go to a clinic.”

In favor of the accused, the court assessed, among other things, his diagnosed sadism and that the crimes were a long time ago. The chairman spoke of a sometimes difficult clarification, for example because in the Bremen case a “clear suicide” was initially assumed.

The defendant is already in custody in a similar case. The underlying decision of the Gießen district court from 2017 was included in the Limburg judgment. This is not yet legally binding.

Do you have suicidal thoughts or have you noticed them in a relative/acquaintance? Help is available from the telephone counseling service: anonymous advice is available around the clock on the free numbers 0800 / 111 0 111 and 0800 / 111 0 222. Advice is also available online at http://www.telefonseelsorge.de

dpa