Homeless killer: – “My sister’s murder changed me”

He hardly speaks, doesn’t want to watch TV, doesn’t read and doesn’t eat much. Thomas A. sits on his haunches most of the day. (name changed) now on his narrow bed. To sometimes suddenly jump up and walk restlessly around his lonely cell in Josefstadt prison, pulling his hair or tugging at his robes.

Cameras have been installed in the 17-year-old’s detention room. So that the security guards can keep an eye on him 24 hours a day – and can intervene quickly in an emergency. The emergency that prison psychologists fear: a suicide attempt by the boy.

“I killed with the handle of the ice pick”
The man who turned himself in to the police last Monday and made a confession of horror. “I am the wanted homeless murderer,” he told officers at the time – clearly proud and unrepentant – and immediately began talking about his actions. About the fact that in July and August – when he was only 16 – he stabbed two men and seriously injured a woman.

“I started looking for victims in June,” Thomas A. said during the interrogation, “at night in different parts of Vienna. “I followed people without shelter – often for hours – and just waited until they finally lay down on a bench or in a meadow to sleep. And that there was no one else around.” When these “requirements” were met – “which has just happened three times” – he took his switchblade knife from the sheath he had attached to his right leg, “took it into the ice pickaxe” and stabbed the defenseless with it. “They were screaming in pain, I attacked them until I thought they had no chance of survival.”

As a result, he “sneaked quietly away from the crime scene so as not to attract attention.” And the boy was surprised when detectives showed him a video of him after one of his crimes: “I had carefully explored the areas where I struck – considering whether there were any surveillance cameras there.”

“And yes, really,” the 17-year-old also explained, “I was actually planning on killing a lot more people.” For example in Windischgarsten, where he worked late at night as a service assistant in a hotel for a few weeks. autumn: “Also at that time a tent festival was taking place there, I assumed I would discover a drunk person walking home alone. But I didn’t find any.”

According to Thomas A’s statements, he probably did not care about the age, gender, and origins of the people who were or would become his targets for extermination; “all that mattered to me was that I didn’t have to expect any counter-attacks.” theirs.”

“I felt satisfaction in my actions”
The motive for his horror crimes? “I was sad because I wasn’t getting any affection from anyone, and I found it satisfying to know that someone was suffering even more than me.”

Why his – late – confession? “After returning from Upper Austria, I met a wonderful girl at a party, we quickly fell in love, my girlfriend gave me the security I longed for for so long – which made me go through some kind of change. Suddenly I no longer felt anger or anger in me, I became calm and gentle. And I started to regret my actions more and more; Ultimately, I felt like I had to stick with what I had done.

Snee. Last Thursday, Thomas A. was visited by his lawyer, Manfred Arbacher-Stöger, while in custody. The two have a long conversation with each other. “A conversation,” as the lawyer said afterwards, “in which my client behaved very differently than during his interrogation. Not cool, but deeply unhappy.”

The life story of the perpetrator
The boy was shocked by fits of crying and continued to sob: “I feel terribly sorry for my victims. How could I do such bad things to them?”

It seems, Arbacher-Stöger continued, “that my client is only now becoming aware of the seriousness of what happened.” Because he is no longer under the influence of drugs: “He used large amounts of LSD, ketamine, ecstasy and cocaine until the very end and heroin.” Where did the 17 year old get the money for? “He was constantly taking mini-jobs.”

What else did the young person tell the lawyer? what about his innermost being, what about his life so far? According to Thomas A’s claims, he grew up in a ‘problematic family situation’. The parents – both civil servants – divorced prematurely. The mother was given custody of the son and the father was given generous visitation rights. “Yes, my mother played with me when I was a boy and she even hugged me a lot then. But the older I got, the more I felt like she didn’t really like me.

The fact is: Thomas A. has repeatedly turned to youth care since he was ten; asking to free him from his home. What didn’t happen was that social workers and doctors never found any evidence that he was being mentally or physically abused there. And even at the high school he attended until a few months ago, he wasn’t considered a boy from a desolate background.

In high school he was considered a “good student.”
Because he was always well dressed. Moreover, he got good grades; and his teachers did not find it alarming that he was rather quiet at school and had little contact with classmates. Anyway, when he was 13, he asked his father to take him in; the man, now remarried and the father of a daughter, agreed to do so. Against the wishes of his new wife.

“I quickly realized she didn’t like me and saw me as an intruder. Although I got along well with my sister. I liked being able to take care of her a little bit, I just loved her to death. More than I had ever loved anyone.”

“The little one’s death devastated me”
One thing is certain: the girl was murdered in 2021, when she was four years old; it was tranquilized by its mother and then shot. “The atrocity against the little girl,” says Thomas A., “devastated me.” To distract himself from the tragedy and “beam myself away from it,” he began using addictive substances “when I was only 16.” take: “When I was ‘on it’, I felt no pain in myself. And over time I got cold – and colder and colder.”

It was in this state of ‘total callousness’ that the boy claims he committed his capital crimes – and finally, on September 18, a horrific act against his mother. “I had been living with her again for a long time, I thought she despised me – and then I got terribly angry.”

The 17-year-old brutally beat the woman and even kicked her head and upper body with his feet as she lay on the ground whimpering. A hearing into this incident took place on Wednesday against Thomas A. on charges of serious bodily harm. It was postponed. Due to the much more serious crimes he has committed, it is now known that several psychiatric reports will soon have to be obtained on him.

“I know I’m a good person. But I now also believe that there is something evil in me,” the boy says about himself, and: “If that were not the case, I would not have felt the urge to do terrible things.”

“But he’s a nice boy.”
“My son has always behaved empathetically towards me,” says his father. “Thomas was – until the attack on me – a nice boy. Who often played the piano,” his mother emphasizes. “My parents don’t know me; Just like I don’t care about myself,” the 17-year-old sobs.

In any case, experts are now speaking. If they declare Thomas A. sane, he could get fifteen years in prison. If he is also diagnosed with a personality disorder, he will not be released until he is considered cured. If it turns out that he has a real mental illness, he is committed to a forensic institution indefinitely.

“Kron”: A teenager who kills people simply because of his urge to kill. A rather rare case?
Rainhard Haller: Yes, such a case is exceptional. Very extraordinary. And that is why I believe it is urgent that the perpetrator is investigated by several experts. It would also be important to place him in a forensic institution during his pre-trial detention. Where he is constantly under the observation of experts.

Do you think Thomas A. is mentally abnormal?
I haven’t examined him, so I can’t diagnose him. But his actions and statements indicate – I emphasize only from a ‘distance perspective’ – that he is, at the very least, suffering from a massive personality development disorder.

Are you ruling out a ‘real mental illness’ like schizophrenia?
No. The most severe disabilities can occur at an early age, even if they are rare and not easily visible from the outside.

The future predictions for those affected?
Different. For some, therapies work very well. For others, not at all – and their disorders become worse.