- Federal court upholds fine
About a year and a half after a devastating house explosion that resulted in a fatality in Bochum, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has overturned a verdict from the regional court regarding sentencing. A different panel will now have to re-evaluate the sentence, as announced by the BGH in Karlsruhe. The judges believe that the court in Bochum did not adequately consider the fact that the foreman convicted in October 2023 had no prior criminal record.
The regional court had sentenced the then 51-year-old to two and a half years in prison for negligent homicide and negligently causing an explosion. While his appeal was unsuccessful, Karlsruhe found errors in the sentencing. "The mitigating factor of the defendant's clean criminal record was not given the weight it deserved in the sentencing," the court stated in its decision.
The defendant's construction crew had used a drill that worked horizontally through the ground - crossing underneath a street intersection. This was not allowed due to the gas pipelines laid there, according to the verdict. Despite one of the workers noticing a gas smell, the foreman wanted to open the site the next morning with an excavator. Shortly after, the escaping gas had spread underground - all the way to the house that later exploded. The 61-year-old homeowner was found dead in the rubble, and her 35-year-old son was injured.
Communication from the Federal Court of Justice
The overturned verdict by the Regional Court of Bochum will be re-evaluated by a new panel, as directed by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe. The original sentencing was deemed to have insufficiently considered the foreman's lack of prior criminal record, as stated in the BGH's communication.
