"Hatred of the state": life imprisonment for attempted murder

Ratingen explosion - "Hatred of the state": life imprisonment for attempted murder

They wanted to help and were attacked: A 57-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the explosion in a high-rise building in Ratingen near Düsseldorf, in which nine emergency services were injured. On Wednesday, the Düsseldorf Regional Court found the German guilty of five counts of attempted murder and established the particular gravity of his guilt. The court cited hatred of the state as his motive.

"The defendant wanted to kill police officers because they represent the state he hates," said the presiding judge. Even after the crime, he had shown the police special forces the middle finger "and thus expressed what he thought of the state and its institutions". At the same time, he had revealed his grossly inhuman attitude. "The act was perfidious and senseless."

Emergency services from the police, fire department and ambulance service had come to the man's apartment on the tenth floor of a high-rise building on 11 May to help a helpless person who was believed to be in the apartment. "Without their efforts, our state would not function," said the judge.

But in the apartment, the 57-year-old lurked behind a barricade of water crates, poured several liters of gasoline on the emergency services and ignited the gas-air mixture with a burning textile. The result was an explosion with a heat of several hundred degrees. A fireball hit the firefighters and set their clothing on fire.

Eight of the nine injured will retain permanent injuries. Most of them had come to the sentencing on Wednesday. Most of them will probably not be able to return to their jobs and will suffer from the consequences for the rest of their lives, a joint plaintiff's representative had said.

The defendant, Frank P., had not said a word during the entire trial. He accepted the verdict motionlessly. Although the finding of particular seriousness of guilt legally allows for release from prison after 15 years, in practice this is virtually impossible. "It would not be justifiable to release him after 15 years," said Judge Rainer Drees.

A psychiatrist had reported that the man had developed a penchant for conspiracy theories during the coronavirus pandemic. He had described the Covid vaccination as the "devil's vaccine" and state institutions such as the employment office as "tools of the devil". He also claimed that his mother's medication was poisoned.

The man lived with his mother's body in the apartment for weeks. The emergency services smelled a strong odor of decay. Because the residents of the apartment had not been seen for weeks and their letterbox was overflowing, the property management had informed the police.

Defense lawyer Frank Schubert had previously demanded a conviction for grievous bodily harm. His client only took action when a gun was pointed at him. Furthermore, he could not have expected the fireball to leave the apartment and go around the corner, injuring other people.

His client had attended a special school and obtained a secondary school leaving certificate after the ninth grade before working as a painter and varnisher. During the coronavirus pandemic, he went into isolation, hid and stockpiled supplies. "He separated himself from society and shut himself off," he said.

He had got on well with his neighbor for decades, but something happened in 2022 and there was suddenly stress. A penalty order was issued against Frank P. for beating up his neighbor. His driving behavior was also no longer comprehensible, he had driven into a speed trap nine times in one day, always in the same place, reported the defense lawyer.

On May 11, horrific scenes had taken place in the high-rise housing estate: Several rescue workers had run down ten flights of stairs on fire to get to safety. They had nothing to reproach themselves for, but had behaved in an exemplary manner and helped each other, the judge emphasized. It was thanks to the exemplary coordination of the rescue operation that everyone was still alive.

Eight rescue helicopters were in the air and 650 people were deployed, taking the injured to specialist clinics. A 25-year-old policewoman suffered the most severe burns to more than 60 percent of her skin. She spent two months in a coma and a total of five months in hospital. She had undergone eleven operations and still had several to go, the badly marked woman reported.

A joint plaintiff's representative said that the verdict was a satisfaction for the victims. It did justice to the facts of the case. His client, an emergency paramedic, would continue to help people.