Hardly has the presiding judge Sabine Graßmann justified the verdict on Manuel H. in the district court of Cologne than his former relatives fall into each other’s arms. After a nine-month circumstantial process with a defendant who initially remained silent and then denied the guilt with ever more abstruse reasons, a burden is lifted from all the joint plaintiffs. This moment can be felt by everyone in the hall. Judges in the 20th Trial Chamber have found the 42-year-old to be a woman killer who administered his victims thallium – a heavy metal that was freely available for rat-killing purposes until the early 1980s.
Verdict against “thallium murderer”: life imprisonment – Panorama
