A young Viennese repeatedly directed the flame at a small, helpless mouse. In court in Vienna he said: “I had the choice between drugs and other aggressive behavior.” The psychiatric expert attested to his highly dangerous sadistic traits – the 28-year-old did it to vent himself.
A 28-year-old sits disoriented, with a confused look and his head in his hands, in the Vienna regional court. “I’m still completely sedated from the medication,” he explains to the judge, why it often takes him a long time to answer and why the information he gives is difficult to follow. The Carinthian native is currently in a psychiatric institution – he tried to harm himself. “Certain sadistic traits present” The defendant has suffered from a mental illness – a severe combined personality disorder – since his childhood. “There are certainly certain sadistic traits present,” explains psychiatrist Siegfried Schranz. Which are also the cause of the crime that brought the young man before the jury. The public prosecutor’s office is also requesting placement in a forensic therapeutic center. At the beginning of November 2022, he set a mouse on fire and killed it in agony. “It was the biggest mistake of my life. Those were times when I wanted to get rid of this anger and hatred towards myself. I had the choice between drugs and other aggressive behavior. “I thought about it every day” – that’s why the blameless 28-year-old turned himself in to the police four months later, told how he had caught a mouse, locked it in a cage, and set it on fire again and again with a deodorant spray and a lighter – until she finally died. Cruelty to animals in a particularly torturous way “Then what did you do to the mouse?” the judge wants to know. The defendant doesn’t want to talk about the crime itself: “At least bury her,” he whispers into his hands. His defense attorney doesn’t question the fact that his client is being sentenced for animal cruelty in a particularly painful way: “We all agree that this is not socially appropriate pest control – flambéing a mouse.” He takes exception to the psychiatric report the requested accommodation. He would be in a facility anyway that would give him medication and look after him every day. He wouldn’t actually engage in violent behavior. But psychiatrist Schranz makes a frightening prognosis: the Viennese is in risk category seven out of nine – the probability that he will commit acts against life and limb is high. That’s why the jury approved the placement in a forensic therapeutic center, but only to a limited extent with a long list of instructions. He received a six-month conditional sentence for animal cruelty. The judgment is final.
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