In his car, a man attacked people in Bottrop and Essen last New Year's Eve. He drove the car into a group - and selected people whom he considered foreigners. In total, 14 people were injured. Now the Essen district court has indefinitely put the 50-year-old in closed psychiatry.
The deeds themselves evaluated the judges, among other things, as a murder attempt. They did not see a terrorist background. "The victims have not become victims of a far-right offender," said Judge Simon Assenmacher in the verdict. "It is rather the act of a seriously ill person."
The accused suffered for years under paranoid schizophrenia. Already hours before the act he had been pursued by delusions. Finally, around midnight, he drove without any reason to Bottrop, ten kilometers away, and later back to Essen.
The wandering led us through squares, through pedestrian zones and over sidewalks. But he did not choose his victims. "His journey was targeted against people with a foreign look," said Assenmacher. He accepted the deaths of the victims.
more on the subject
Nevertheless, the Essene could be placed outside his delusions no xenophobia. Triggered by an acute episode of his paranoid schizophrenia, he believed on New Year's Eve that an attack was being prepared or was already underway. In this situation, he had felt tasked to prevent this. "He imagined himself on a mission to slowly clean the streets like with a vacuum cleaner," said Assenmacher.
A woman was run over twice and temporarily hovered in acute danger. It was only thanks to the luck and medical skills of the doctors that she did not bleed to death. The victims have been suffering to some extent from the physical and psychological consequences of the crime, the judge said.
In the 50-year-olds, the ability to see the injustice, was completely repealed, according to judgment. A classic punishment would therefore not be considered in view of the certainly fixed indebtedness. Because of its dangerousness, the perpetrator must be housed in closed psychiatry.