Public prosecutor charges 14-year-old with murder
At the beginning of September, police find a dead 14-year-old on a school campus in Bavaria after receiving tips. It quickly becomes clear that it was a homicide. A suspect is arrested. Now the public prosecutor brings charges against the 14-year-old for murder.
He is said to have acted out of pure lust for murder, following the example of an American serial killer: less than four months after the violent death of a 14-year-old in Lohr am Main in Lower Franconia, the public prosecutor's office has charged a man of the same age with murder. "He only committed the crime in order to kill someone," said a spokesman for the authorities in Würzburg. According to previous findings, the accused probably worshipped the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who committed one of the most gruesome series of murders in the USA and about whom there is a Netflix series - Dahmer dismembered his at least 17 male victims between 1978 and 1991 and ate body parts. The "Main-Post" had previously reported.
The now accused German is said to have killed his victim on September 8, 2023 on a school campus in the small town of Lohr in the district of Main-Spessart with a shot to the head from behind. According to the investigators, there has been no evidence of other perpetrators or helpers so far. The Würzburg district court must now decide whether to admit the charges and set trial dates.
Teenager with pure lust for murder?
The suspect has remained silent about the allegations since his arrest. According to the investigators, the young man was fascinated by the murderer Dahmer, who is also known as the "Cannibal of Milwaukee". "He probably had friends call him by his name," said the spokesman for the public prosecutor's office. He committed the crime out of pure lust for murder.
The murder weapon, a 9-millimeter pistol, legally belonged to a neighbor of the accused. According to the police, he had all the necessary permits. He had also stored his weapons properly. It is not publicly known how the pupil obtained the pistol. The gun owner could not be questioned after the crime because he was in hospital. He died a few weeks after the crime. However, the 66-year-old is said to have known the young man.
After the crime, the investigating commission searched for the victim's cell phone for days with the support of the riot police and specially trained data carrier sniffer dogs. It was eventually found - whether it helped the investigators any further is unknown.
A 15-year-old boy alerted the police to what had happened on the day of the crime, a Friday during the summer vacations. Patrol officers discovered the dead 14-year-old a short time later. He was an Italian citizen and had lived in Lohr for years. The boy was lying in a bush near the school center where he attended middle school. The suspect was arrested a short time later.
The accused is of criminal age
The age of criminal responsibility begins on the 14th birthday. In German criminal law, you can only be punished, even for serious offenses, if you have acted culpably - and this requires the ability to understand and control.
As children under the age of 14 do not usually have these, the legislator has decided that they are not culpable. In the case of juveniles of criminal age, their maturity to recognize the wrongfulness of the act and to act accordingly must be positively established. If the accused were to go to trial, the juvenile chamber of the district court would be entrusted with the case. The public would be excluded from the proceedings, which is always the case by law if the proceedings are directed exclusively against a juvenile.
More and more minors suspected of crimes
The accused is a juvenile within the meaning of the law, who is particularly worthy of protection. In juvenile proceedings, the focus is on the educational aspect, as a court spokesperson explained. However, according to the court, elements of guilt compensation can also be taken into account when punishing juveniles, particularly in the case of serious crimes. The maximum juvenile sentence for murder is ten years. However, preventive detention is possible under strict conditions.
In recent months, several violent crimes committed by teenagers have caused alarm across Germany. According to police crime statistics, the number of 14 to 18-year-old suspects across Germany rose by 22.1 percent to just over 189,000 in 2022. It is true that more minors were living in Germany in 2022 than in the previous year, partly due to the admission of refugees from Ukraine. But that alone does not explain the trend. With an increase of 22.1 percent to exactly 189,149 suspected young people, the level of the previous year, which was still heavily influenced by coronavirus, was significantly exceeded. The number was also almost 12,100 suspects higher than in 2019 (177,082).
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The international community is expressing concern over the increasing number of murder and manslaughter cases involving minors, with this case in Lohr am Main being a prime example. Efforts are being made to understand the factors leading these processes within the context of modern society and international youth culture.
Given the young age of the accused, it's crucial for the justice system to carefully consider the appropriate processes and appropriate punishment, taking into account the principles of rehabilitation and education.
Source: www.ntv.de
