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Sleeping wife killed with hammer – life imprisonment
A 75-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife. photo
© Marius Becker/dpa
A pensioner brutally kills his sleeping wife with a hammer. Apparently out of concern about high debts in old age. The court finds this incomprehensible – and is faced with a puzzle.
Six months after the violent death of a 73-year-old In Viersen, the Mönchengladbach regional court sentenced her husband to life imprisonment for murder. The 75-year-old pensioner confessed to killing his sleeping wife with a hammer at the end of May.
According to his own statement, the pensioner wanted to save her from an old age in poverty. The couple had repeatedly supported their chronically ill and professionally failed 47-year-old son financially and had gone into debt to do so. The defendant said in court that the debts threatened his existence. He saw no other way out than the act.
The court found the reasoning difficult to understand. According to the testimony of a bank employee, a debt of around 32,000 euros was “still manageable even at that age,” said presiding judge Martin Alberring. “If they hadn’t supported their now 47-year-old son so massively, there wouldn’t have been any bottlenecks at all,” he accused the defendant. From the court’s point of view, the crime remains mysterious. The motive could not be clarified.
There was also no evidence of an affective act, said the chairman in the reasons for the verdict. The couple did not argue before the crime, nor was the pensioner uninhibited by alcohol. A psychiatric expert classified the man as fully responsible at the time of the crime. The 75-year-old gave a full confession in court. The verdict is not yet legally binding.