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The defendants in the courtroom: Bad shape to look at the victim
Photo:
Ute Wessels / dpa
In derisive cell phone messages sent late in the evening by the supposed friends, it was said, among other things: "He's drowning." And in fact, the 22-year-old drowned in a canal in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate after the previous evening at a pub - because the three young adults didn't help him .
The Weiden district court has now sentenced the three to several years in prison.
The presiding judge sentenced two of them for suspension resulting in death.
A 24-year-old, who was once the victim's best friend, is said to have been imprisoned for five and a half years.
A 22-year-old was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
The third defendant received a six-month prison sentence for failure to provide assistance, but was suspended.
"I feel so bad"
The presiding judge explained in detail why adults have to bear not only a moral guilt, but also a criminal one.
According to him, the party night had turned into the night of the crime when the acquaintances brought the later victim out of a shisha bar in the direction of a parking garage.
At some point he found it difficult to coordinate; they had to lead him several times and pull him away from the street.
The 24-year-old and the 22-year-old among the defendants were also drunk.
The third defendant was there with the car and later not directly on the bank with the event.
The man they brought from the bar disappeared at the parking garage.
The acquaintances looked for him and heard noises from the nearby canal.
They finally found him wet and whimpering on the bank.
The woman held on to it with the cell phone camera.
The young woman's laughter can be heard on a video.
The 22-year-old speaks to her from the bank and says: "I'm so bad." But instead of helping, the woman wanted to create a video that was easy to post, the judge said.
"Because that's important nowadays."
Impossible not to see the danger
In a second film, she zooms in on the drunk when he tries in vain to sit up and then falls into the water.
His bad shape can be seen - the judges were convinced that it was impossible not to see the danger.
The friends left anyway.
Then they wrote the mocking cell phone messages.
In the morning the friends tried to reach their acquaintances: "Are you still alive?" And "Don't give a shit," they typed.
But by then he had already drowned.
By leading the man out of the bar, the friends had worsened his situation, the presiding judge justified the guilty verdict.
The proximity of the parking garage to the canal meant an increased risk, and there were fewer people there who could have helped.
The criminal chamber decided to punish the young man more severely than the woman because, as the victim's former best friend, he must have had an increased interest in helping.
The defenders of the two, who had called for acquittals in their pleadings, announced a revision.
apr / dpa