“Pretty Confused” – After a Brutal Burglary: Institutional Admission

Psychiatric expert Siegfried Schranz considers the man so dangerous that, according to his report, without jail time, “crimes with serious consequences, such as, in particular, serious bodily harm with death or even murder, are to be feared”. with high probability”. A week after the incident, the 35-year-old was still “confused and de-realized”.

Always stopped treatments early
The man had previously been hospitalized several times and was also being cared for by the psychosocial service. However, he was not aware of the disease. Again and again he stopped the treatments prematurely, took his medication irregularly or not at all. He didn’t leave the hospital until shortly before the attack because he would have to tend to his dripping thermal bath.

At 4:40 a.m. on February 15, he broke into the family home because he wanted something to eat. A nightmare began for the mother and her two children. “I left the light on in the living room, assuming that where the light is on, there will be no break-ins,” said 42-year-old jury chairperson Claudia Zöllner.

“I knew immediately that someone was there”
When she was awakened by the smashing window, the woman initially thought the cat had thrown something down. “But the sound was so intense and constant, I knew immediately that someone was there. He sounded like a bull in a china shop.” The woman warned the police, who advised her to go into hiding. With her nine-year-old son by the hand, she tried to get to the lockable bathroom, on the way she wanted to get her daughter from the next room. But suddenly the intruder stood in front of her, the knife levied.

Man stabs woman 20 times
The woman offered him money and hoped he would leave the house after that. Instead, the man stabbed the woman about 20 times. Despite serious injuries, she was able to get back into the boy’s bedroom, where she fought a bitter argument with the 35-year-old after he repeatedly poked through a crack in the door. “He didn’t say a word,” the woman said, and the intruder didn’t respond either.

“He was like a robot”
The facial expression was pale and the eyes were not sharp. At one point she stopped screaming and said “almost like a mother to him, now that the police are coming, run away”. Only then did the man let go of the woman and leave the house. He was arrested moments later at a nearby property. The mother and her children hid in the attic until the police arrived.

Children were unharmed
The children were unharmed physically, but are treated like their mother for the enormous psychological consequences. “It has changed the family a lot,” said the 42-year-old. About the offer from the parents of the 35-year-old to send the woman 3,000 euros to compensate for the damage, the woman said: “It would be better if the parents put the money into their son’s therapy.”

“He Can’t Remember”
The 35-year-old’s lawyer, Manfred Arbacher-Stöger, said his client no longer knew why or why he was doing it. “He can’t remember,” the lawyer said. “It is the most terrible thing I could have done to the family,” said the victim. According to medical expert Wolfgang Denk, the woman suffered six injuries, some of which were life-threatening. Discretion and disposition were no longer given at the time of the crime, but due to his lack of common sense, the 35-year-old could not be charged with the original crime – attempted murder.