First a dispute escalated on vacation. When it came to the separation a little later, the man attacked the mother of his children with a razor. Now he is indicted in the regional court.
Even the presiding judge at the district court in Cologne is shocked by the extent of these acts of violence in a marriage. The accused is a family man with a criminal record (36) who attacked his wife twice in the summer of 2020 so violently that he now has to answer again for dangerous bodily harm. About the second offense, the chairman of the criminal chamber said: “It has a quality that is rare even in these halls.”
The first incident occurred on July 19, when an argument broke out between the spouses during a vacation in Spain, as a result of which the defendant bumped into the dinner table. Drinks fell over and the defendant’s wife went to the bathroom with their son, 6, to wash off a juice stain. The man followed her, first hit her so hard that a laceration was left on her eye and then choked her with the shower hose until she cramped.
Attack with a razor
His actions on August 26th were even more violent. The couple was already separated at this point. On the pretext that he had to get something, the defendant gained access to his wife while the daughter was in kindergarten. Then he pulled out a razor, announced that he would “get her head off” and made deep cuts on both cheeks and neck. The woman was released because the doorbell happened to ring. While her husband and tormentor went to the apartment door, she was able to save herself by jumping through the kitchen window onto the neighbors’ terrace below.
The Cologne lawyer Oliver B. Gaertner and his client before the start of the negotiation. (Source: Tüntsch)
The defendant has been in custody since then. His wife, who is said to be permanently disfigured by the act, lives with her children in a shelter, has applied for sole custody of both children and a hardship decision, i.e. an early divorce before the end of a year of separation. In the criminal process, she appears as a joint plaintiff.
Previous attacks against women
“My client fully admits the act,” admitted his defense lawyer, Cologne lawyer Oliver B. Gaertner, and explained that the husband had suffered from a persistently tense situation, because a possible separation had already become apparent during the vacation: “Before he was afraid. He was also plagued by self-doubt because he had not been able to earn a steady income for years. “
The 36-year-old had broken off his training as a car mechanic, then worked as a door and window fitter, waited, worked in trade fair construction and cleaned cars in his brother’s workshop. At the same time, he built up an extensive file with twelve entries in the federal central register. Accordingly, he not only has several drug offenses and thefts on the kerbholz, but also trespassing, blackmail, threats and dangerous bodily harm.
Acts that were convicted before the Cologne District Court in 2011 and 2012 are also in the context of failed relationships. So he bloody beat the new boyfriend of a former partner and forced him and his ex-girlfriend to get into his car to take them to a sports field. There he threatened them: If they didn’t pay him 600 euros, they could “forget to go around the village together”. Another time he smashed an ex-girlfriend’s cell phone in anger, insulted her in various situations as a “whore” and “headscarf whore” and announced: “I’ll cut your neck, you’ll see.”
“No outbreak of domestic violence”
The presiding judge made no secret of the fact that a confession was a good one, but that many details remained to be clarified. The Chamber is interested in what the trigger for the man’s anger was. In a letter he said that his wife had “done everything that is forbidden before God”. The question arises whether jealousy was an issue in marriage. The man must have brought the razor to the scene of the crime because his wife stated in advance of the trial that it was not part of the household. “Slicing open cheeks with a razor is not an outbreak of domestic violence,” said the chairman.
The wife was questioned in camera. In view of the completely escalated situation between the separated couple, she had requested that the defendant himself leave the room for the duration of her interrogation. The court granted this request. The verdict is expected on December 14th.
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