Man stands trial after killing sex partner in Thun
Published: Friday, Dec 15th 2023, 15:20
العودة إلى البث المباشر
Following the discovery of a female body in Lake Thun, a former sexual partner of the victim has been on trial in Thun since Friday. The court of first instance must ultimately decide whether the woman's death was an accident or a sadistic, sexually motivated murder.
A broad-shouldered, bearded 39-year-old man from the Basel region sat before the regional court in Thun on Friday. A little rough-legged perhaps, but also with a winning side: at least that's how he presented himself in court. The accused did not deny that he had a penchant for sexual bondage.
He answered the court's questions eloquently - at least when they were not about the decisive phases of the crime, which are still unclear today. He always evaded the sensitive points or gave explanations that did not seem particularly credible. The man often claimed that he could no longer remember.
An accident
He had known the victim from before and had sought contact with her again. On the evening of the crime, they drove to a secluded spot in Bruderholz near Münchenstein BL. They got out of the car there. The next thing he saw was the woman lying lifeless on the ground with blood on her head. She must have fallen, according to the defendant's version.
He panicked. Instead of calling an ambulance or taking the victim to hospital, he loaded her into his vehicle and drove home. He then decided that he had to "get rid of" the body.
He had driven haphazardly through the area. At Lake Thun, he dumped the body, which was tied to a building site plinth. To this day, he can no longer explain why he did this. If he had really wanted to kill the woman, he would not have proceeded so amateurishly, said the accused.
Creation of legends
The psychiatric expert spoke of "crime legends" that perpetrators formed and sometimes believed themselves in order to be able to reconcile what had happened with themselves.
The expert attested that the man had a dissocial personality disorder. The question is how strongly the sexual component affects the sadistic personality.
The expert did not believe that the defendant had panicked. He was a logical, analytical man and quite emotionally cold, considering that he wanted to "get rid of" or "dispose of" the dead woman. Expressions that the accused had chosen himself.
Cold-blooded murder
For the public prosecutor's office, it is clear that the man murdered his victim for sadistic, sexual reasons. The charges include murder, disturbing the peace of the dead, pornography and depictions of violence. Hard pornographic material was found on the man's computer.
According to the indictment, the man allegedly got into an argument with his victim in Bruderholz over sexual practices to be used. The accused hit the woman on the head with a hammer and inflicted non-fatal injuries. He then tied the woman's hands and feet. Around half an hour later, he placed a cable tie around the neck of the woman, who was still alive, and pulled it tight.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine states strangulation as the cause of death. The accused had tied the body to a building site plinth. Before doing so, he had looked on the Internet to find out where bodies could be disposed of in Swiss waters. In Gunten on Lake Thun, he had thrown the body weighted down with the building site plinth into the water.
Possible, but not certain
Accident or murder: that is the crucial question that the regional court must decide. The psychiatric expert did not let himself out onto the branches on Friday. Much of what the man said was inconsistent, the expert emphasized. For him, there are some indications that sadistic-sexual fantasies played a role in the crime. But that cannot be said with certainty.
The trial before the regional court of first instance in Thun is scheduled to last several days. The parties' representatives will make their pleas on Tuesday and the verdict will be handed down on December 22.
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