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Defendant (r.) In the Bamberg Regional Court (with his defense lawyer)
Photo:
Gregor Bauernfeind / dpa
A man in Upper Franconia has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his nine-year-old son.
The act was very difficult to grasp even after seven days of trial, especially for the mother and sister of the killed boy, said the judge at the Bamberg district court when the verdict was pronounced on Friday.
The court considered it proven that in March the 51-year-old first hit the nine-year-old with a metal hanger on the head "with considerable force" and then choked him for minutes with his bare hands.
"That means looking the son in the eye," said the judge.
As reported by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), the man from Kleinsendelbach in the Forchheim district had already confessed to the offense to the police and in court at the start of the trial.
The question of the motive could not be clearly clarified for the court either.
Several aspects were mentioned: the wife had separated from the man months earlier, the family had debts, he was worried about his job.
According to the BR, the man planned to kill the whole family.
According to his own statements, he also wanted to kill himself.
But after the fact he did not manage to do that on his son.
A reviewer noted a slight depression.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
col / dpa