The jury is deliberating in the Krems Regional Court on the sentences for the Lower Austrian mother who tortured her son (12) almost to death in a dog crate and her co-suspect ‘instructor’. The two women from the Waldviertel, once ‘soulmates’, blamed each other during the trial.
Although they did not look at each other during the trial, for three days of the trial the two accused women sat next to each other in the dock in the same position: with their right leg crossed over their left leg, their hands clasped, they stared intently at Judge Monika Fasching -Lattus.
Crying is ‘not out of remorse’
While the second accused mother of four (40) repeatedly bursts into fits of crying, the 33-year-old direct perpetrator shows no emotion. “The tears do not come from remorse. The tears come from the fear of the consequences,” said victim lawyer Timo Ruisinger in his final statement, in which he criticized the accomplice.
Prosecutor Anna Weißenböck once again summarizes the terrible crime: “In 2022, the two women tortured a 12-year-old child almost to death. You have Gerard (name changed) destroyed, at least mentally.”
Before the jury retired to deliberate on the verdict on the third day of the trial, court psychiatrist Peter Hofmann spoke – his comments are a key moment in the trial. Because the two defendants in the LG Krems court failed to answer: “Why?”
Expert Hofmann: “Deeply sadistic elements”
Her mentally disturbed child was a “huge challenge” for the first defendant, Hofmann says. When the woman met the second defendant after her mother died in 2019, she became “deeply dependent” on her. “My client was in her grip,” says lawyer Astrid Wagner. If the first defendant was manipulated in this way by her ‘soulmate’ and ordered to commit the terrible acts, then the underlying cause was a ‘lust for power with deeply sadistic elements’, Hofmann explains.
“I think the first defendant was in love with my client and blamed Gerhard for the fact that it didn’t work. That’s why she hated the child,” said Sascha Flatz, lawyer for the mother of four children.
“I’m sorry for what happened,” Gerhard’s mother said on the day of the verdict. – “Nothing happened. “You did something very consciously!”, says the public prosecutor indignantly. At 3 p.m. the jury withdrew to deliberate. Verdict pending.
Source: Krone
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