A man (56) had to answer to the Schwyz criminal court on Thursday because he fatally injured his daughter with three knife wounds in 2020. The two lived in an incestuous relationship. The prosecutor demands 13 years in prison for the man for attempted murder, the defense assesses the act as attempted manslaughter.
The relationship between the father and the then 28-year-old daughter ended violently on August 18, 2020 at the latest in the common house in Sattel SZ. Shortly after midnight, the accused lured the dog out of the daughter’s bedroom and stabbed the victim, who was lying in bed, with a butcher knife.
Injured person in hospital: Police cordon off residential quarters in Sattel SZ(00:48)
The father injured the daughter life-threateningly. A neighbor, startled by the screams, called the police. The man turned himself in. So far, the parties agreed in the process. However, there were already differences in the description of the fact. The accused German remained silent during his questioning in court.
Particularly unscrupulous
The prosecutor had proven that the man wanted to murder his daughter, with whom he lived and who had a disabled son together since 2014.
For the attempted murder and incest, she demanded a prison sentence of 13 years and a 15-year expulsion from the country. The accused had acted particularly unscrupulously. He was driven by jealousy, revenge and hatred because the daughter longed for an open relationship and wanted to build a business offering sexual services to well-heeled men.
The execution of the crime then reminded “of a kind of reckoning,” explained the prosecutor. The accused inflicted inhumane physical and psychological torture on the victim, which would not have been necessary for the mere killing. For example, he told her that he would slit her open, that she was going to die and spat on her. According to the prosecutor, the daughter only survived because the father saw the police drive up.
Not murder, just attempted manslaughter
The defender questioned this statement. The father didn’t let go of the daughter because of the police car lights. His client woke up from his delusion when his daughter told him she loved him. He saw the knife in his hand and said to himself, “What did you do?” The public prosecutor’s office merely relies on the victim’s statements, which are highly questionable.
The accused acted in an emotional state, which is why he was not charged with murder but with attempted manslaughter, the defense attorney explained. For this he should receive a prison sentence of five years.
The defense attorney said his client had suffered from great mental stress before the crime and was also receiving psychological treatment because of the relationship problems with his daughter. Quoting from text messages, he painted the picture of a meek, dependent father and a domineering, manipulative daughter who humiliated him. She wanted to incite her father’s jealousy.
Perpetrator apologized “from the bottom of my heart”
In text messages minutes before the crime, the daughter accused the father of being her pimp, so he got into an affect and was only able to control his actions to a limited extent, the defense attorney explained.
The representative of the daughter, who acted as a private prosecutor, contradicted this. For more than an hour he thought about how he could kill his daughter. His motive was grossly selfish. She demanded 60,000 francs in compensation for her client, who was severely traumatized.
The daughter’s representative refused a third questioning of the victim, as demanded by the defense attorney. This would be a mockery of the victim. The defense attorney complained of a procedural violation because the woman was not summoned.
In his closing words, the accused apologized “from the bottom of his heart” to his daughter. He regrets every day what happened. The judgment will be announced in writing in a few days. (SDA/jmh)