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Scene of the accident in January 2018
Photo: Maurizio Gambarini / dpa
Fabien Martini smiles from a photo in room 135 of the criminal court in Berlin.
It is the radiant smile of a young woman that appears happy.
Your mother brought the photo with her and placed it in a frame on the table in front of her.
She has positioned it so that the defendant and the court can see her daughter clearly.
Fabien was 21 years old.
She died on January 29, 2018.
Chief Inspector Peter G., 53, now has to answer for negligent homicide before the Berlin-Tiergarten District Court.
During a trip with blue lights and a siren, he is said to have raced out of a tunnel near Alexanderplatz in Berlin-Mitte at around 1 p.m. that day.
His car collided with Fabien's car.
The young woman had changed lanes to park in one of the parking lots in the middle of the street.
The public prosecutor's office accuses the policeman of driving too fast.
Although the further course of the road after the tunnel was difficult for him to see and he had to reckon with cross traffic at all times, he continued the journey "at an inappropriate speed".
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The terrible accident goes "very, very close" to the defendant, says the defense attorney
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
Peter G. sits in a hunched position in the dock.
He keeps his black mask on his face.
On behalf of his client, defense attorney Jens Grygier addresses Fabien's parents after the prosecution has been read out.
Peter G. is "very, very close" to the terrible accident, he says.
He was "very, very sorry" for what had happened.
"I thought the car was about to take off"
Anna T., 33, was working in the registry office in Berlin-Mitte at the time.
During her lunch break she wanted to go to the canteen in the Rotes Rathaus.
At around 1 p.m. she crossed the multi-lane Grunerstraße near Alexanderplatz.
She reached the parking lane in the middle of the street, looked around, the street seemed clear.
To her right she saw "a girl" who tried to park a white Renault Clio, as the witness reported in court.
From somewhere she heard a police siren faintly.
She took two or three steps onto the road, towards the Red City Hall.
And suddenly she heard the siren again, this time "extremely loud," as she says.
"I thought the car was about to take off. I've never seen a car drive through town so fast."
She shrank back in shock.
"I just managed to jump back into the parking space," said the witness.
"A second later and I would have been under the car."
The police car pushed the white Clio a few meters in front of it.
Tires rolled over the road.
"I went to the car. I wanted to get the girl out of the car, but the door wouldn't open."
She tried from the passenger side but failed, someone came to her aid.
The girl was buckled up, Anna T. could not undo the belt.
"The girl looked unharmed," she says, it was not conscious.
Anna T. says she had decided to get a first-aid kit, tried to stop cars passing by, but no one stopped.
Suddenly there were people everywhere.
Somebody managed to get Fabien out of the car.
With a policewoman who had since appeared at the scene of the accident, and other helpers, she took care of the young woman.
"It was a huge field of rubble," says a police officer who was the first to arrive at the scene of the accident.
When he saw the destroyed cars, he asked himself: "How fast did it go?"
The presiding judge Sascha Daue asks how fast police officers with flashing lights and sirens can drive inside the city.
"70 to 80 km / h," says the police officer, "if at all."
The following applies to every mission: "The endangerment of others is to be excluded."
He himself drove the accident route later.
His impression: "When you drive out of the tunnel, you don't see anything at first."
The place is difficult to see.
"It's a confusing matter for me."
His anger at the accused is enormous
Lawyer Philipp Appelt represents Fabien's mother, who is a joint plaintiff in the trial.
He asks the police witness if he has asked about Peter G.'s possible alcohol consumption.
"No," says the witness, "nowhere was there any hint to us that alcohol could play a role."
A patient file of the defendant is said to show that Peter G. may have been under the influence of alcohol on that day.
The prosecution had the files confiscated.
An illegal process, as the court found in advance.
Findings from the file may not be used in the process.
Fabien's mother suffers silently.
You can see the pain.
She cries and sits slumped in her chair.
Fabien's father is completely different.
It almost seems defiant how he lifts his chin and looks directly at the accused.
Outside the hall he says that he is using all his strength not to freak out.
His anger at Peter G. is huge.
He does not take remorse from him.
"He's just a daredevil. He's not sorry for anything," says his father, while tears well up in his eyes.
"He's just sorry he's in the dock."
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