Man severely injures roommates with knife: court speaks verdict

Created: 03/22/2022, 11:24 am

By: Heidi Niemann

The entrance to the district court of Göttingen: That's where the verdict was made.

(Iconic image) © Hubert Jelinek/dpa

A 23-year-old seriously injured his sleeping roommate in Göttingen with a knife.

Now the man has to go to prison for several years.

Goettingen – The court found the defendant, who grew up in Sierra Leone and has lived in Germany for four years, guilty of attempted murder combined with dangerous bodily harm.

The chamber has no doubt that the accused attacked the roommate in September last year in a communal accommodation in Goettingen in order to kill him, said the presiding judge Tobias Jakubetz.

At the time of the crime, the accused shared a room with the victim in the communal accommodation.

Conflicts arose early on, said the presiding judge.

The living situation in the accommodation was very stressful.

Another factor is also a "certain disposition" of the accused, as reported by hna.de *.

Göttingen: Court speaks of attempted murder after knife attack

The 23-year-old has already been caught several times under criminal law and has already spent considerable time in prison.

Among other things, he served a seven-month youth sentence in 2019.

The fact that he has already accumulated nine entries in the criminal record since his arrival in Germany in February 2018 indicates that he is indifferent to the laws in force in this country.

As in previous incidents, this attack came completely unexpectedly, said the presiding judge.

His roommate came into the room they shared the night before after work and went to sleep.

He woke up for the first time at 7 a.m., went to the toilet and then lay down again.

Tobias Jakubetz, presiding judge © Bernd Schlegel

Knife attack in Göttingen was sudden - the perpetrator had rammed a knife into the victim's chest

About two hours later he woke up and noticed that a knife was stuck in his chest.

The accused sat on his legs and pressed the knife into his chest as far as it would go.

The seriously injured roommate then fought back and tried to push the accused away.

In the ensuing scuffle, he suffered further injuries to his neck and shoulder.

With its judgment, the court went well beyond the request of the public prosecutor.

This had pleaded for a prison sentence of five years.

The representative of the private prosecutor applied for a higher prison sentence of nine years.

The defense, however, asked for an acquittal.

Göttingen: Eight and a half years in prison for convicts - defense demanded acquittal

The accused had denied the crime and had his defense attorney explain that his roommate had rammed the knife into his chest.

The court considered this version to be implausible because in such a case it was not understandable why he had fled out the window.

According to the court, the victim not only suffered significant physical injuries, but is still suffering from the psychological consequences of the crime.

(Heidi Niemann)

Again and again there are knife attacks and the associated court cases in the university town.

Just like in the summer of 2021 when a then 24-year-old landed in court for a knife attack in downtown Göttingen *.

And in January 2022, a robber attacked and threatened a cashier with a knife*.

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