Two Work Colleagues Killed: Induction for Construction Workers in Vienna

The carpenter suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and committed the acts under the influence of the disease. Therefore, he did not have to answer for double murder, as he is not criminally responsible. The decision is already legally binding.

A psychiatric report obtained by the prosecution revealed that the 35-year-old was under the influence of a persistent and severe mental disorder at the time of the crimes, which had already broken out in 2007, and this was largely responsible for his actions. He had maltreated the two victims with numerous punches and kicks and pushed one of them out of a window on the fourth floor.

Slain Men Allegedly Responsible for Murders in Czech Republic

He stated that he felt "threatened" by the two men. They were "members of the mafia". They were responsible for murders in the Czech Republic, so he had to kill them, he told the presiding judge Andreas Böhm. During his interrogation by the police, the 35-year-old named several men who were supposed to have been killed in the Czech Republic - including at a dance event. The police then investigated and found that these homicides did not exist. An alleged murder victim is still alive, a second person died in a tractor accident in Austria, and the other names are not real people.

The statements the man made during his interrogation in Vienna, and his overall impression, had already raised doubts about his sanity among the police investigators. Two weeks before the first murder in Vienna, the man called the police in the Czech Republic because he felt threatened. Czech officers took him to a psychiatric hospital, but he was quickly released from there.

Killings "Hardly Surpassable in Brutality"

The psychiatric expert Peter Hofmann classified the man as insane, but at the same time dangerous. "What he did to the two victims is hardly surpassable in brutality," said Hofmann. "His aim was to completely destroy this person." The expert described the affected person as a "schizophrenic serial offender" and it is highly likely to be feared that the 35-year-old will commit a punishable act with serious consequences under the influence of the disease in the foreseeable future.

Therefore, Hofmann advocated for an indefinite commitment of the man to a forensic-therapeutic center. He is currently being treated with a depot injection every four weeks, but it takes "a corresponding time until the treatment takes effect," said the expert.

Initially, the first death - a 44-year-old man who fell from a window - was considered an accident or suicide. His body was quickly transferred to his homeland in Slovakia. However, when a second colleague of the Czech man was found in his room a week later in the same hotel with a smashed skull, this assessment by the law enforcement agencies changed. The body of the first victim was then autopsied, and the forensic medicine determined that the man had been beaten before his fall.

Returned to Vienna for Second Act

The 35-year-old told the court on Monday that he had returned to Vienna specifically for the second murder. On July 23, he obtained an access card for the 29-year-old's room and then attacked him with extreme brutality. He had worked with the two victims, who were from Slovakia, in the same company, which had housed the workers in a hotel near the Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof. Numerous witnesses heard loud noises from the room for several minutes during the second murder, but no one intervened.

The 35-year-old was quickly identified and arrested in the Czech Republic the day after his last act on the basis of a European arrest warrant. A few days later, he was handed over to the Austrian authorities. He confessed to the facts but claimed that he was threatened by the men.

Committed Similar Offense in Czech Republic

The 35-year-old has already stood trial for a similar offense in his home country. He served seven years for assault because he wanted to apprehend an alleged murderer. The act is very reminiscent of the offenses he then committed in Vienna. At that time, a psychiatric report was prepared in the Czech Republic, but the expert at the time could not detect any mental illness.

His client was "under enormous pressure" to be constantly threatened, said his lawyer Wolfgang Ebner. Expert Hofmann also reported that the 35-year-old had never married or started a family, for fear that something might happen to his relatives. The man had developed "a complex delusion that became increasingly bizarre" at a very early stage.

(APA/Red)

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