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Courthouse in Munich
Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa
In the trial of the knife attack on a ten-year-old boy in a Munich clothing store, the accused 58-year-old confessed to the crime.
At the start of the trial before the Munich I Regional Court, his lawyer said “that the facts of the case are correct and that he is sorry about the whole thing”.
The public prosecutor's office accuses the man, who is said to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and is therefore probably innocent, of attempted murder.
He is said to have "tormented by his paranoia caused by his illness" on November 6 last year, attacked the child who was playing with his brother on an escalator.
The prosecutor said the suspect approached the boy "quietly and unnoticed" from behind.
Then "he grabbed the upper body of the child with his left hand and cut it three times from left to right across the front of the neck with the kitchen knife he was carrying in his right hand, in order to kill him," according to the application.
The boy sustained multiple cuts from the 20-centimetre knife, one so deep it reached to the bone.
According to the application, a man who had observed the crime pushed the perpetrator to the ground, and the parents also rushed to help their son.
The boy had to undergo two surgeries after the attack.
According to the information, he is still receiving psychotherapeutic and ergotherapeutic treatment.
As a result, he is not yet able to fully move his hands again.
wit/dpa