Process - Sleeping wife beaten to death with a hammer - life imprisonment
Six months after the violent death of a 73-year-old woman in Viersen, the Mönchengladbach Regional Court has sentenced her husband to life imprisonment for murder. The 75-year-old pensioner had confessed to beating his sleeping wife to death with a hammer at the end of May.
According to his own statement, the pensioner wanted to spare her an old age in poverty. The couple had repeatedly supported their chronically ill and professionally failed 47-year-old son financially and had run up debts. The debts had threatened their existence, the defendant said in court. He had seen no other way out than to commit the crime.
The court found the reasoning barely comprehensible. 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 had not supported their now 47-year-old son so massively, there would have been no shortage at all," he reproached the defendant. From the court's point of view, the crime remained a mystery. The motive could not be clarified.
There were also no indications of an act of passion, the presiding judge said in his verdict. Neither had the couple argued before the crime, nor had the pensioner been disinhibited by alcohol. A psychiatric expert had classified the man as fully culpable at the time of the crime. The 75-year-old confessed fully in court. The verdict is not yet final.
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- The verdict in the criminal case at the Mönchengladbach Regional Court in North Rhine-Westphalia, involving a husband who beat his 73-year-old wife to death with a hammer, is yet to be finalized.
- The husband, a 75-year-old pensioner from Viersen, admitted to committing the murder out of financial desperation, as they had been supporting their chronically ill and financially unsuccessful 47-year-old son.
- In its judgment, the Mönchengladbach Regional Court found the pensioner's reasoning incomprehensible, as a debt of around 32,000 euros was still manageable at their age, according to a bank employee's testimony.
- The court also highlighted that if the defendant had not supported their son so extensively, they would not have faced financial difficulties, which could have prevented the crime.
- The Mönchengladbach Regional Court, in its judgments on such criminality cases, continues to strive for justice, ensuring that offenders face appropriate penalties for their actions, such as life imprisonment in this case.
Source: www.stern.de
