A 26-year-old crashed his car into a couple in December, on Monday he has to answer before a jury in Styria. Even before the incident, the accused, who was classified as unsound, threatened the woman. The Styrian denies the act, in the evening the verdict of the jury will fall.
A 26-year-old stood before a jury on Monday because he drove his car at passers-by in December 2022. In itself, the charge would have been coercion and attempted murder, but since he was classified by the expert as not of sound mind, there was only a referral to a forensic-therapeutic center in the room. The Styrian denied the intention to kill: “I just wanted to intimidate her a bit,” was his justification. Turned the car and drove straight to the couple. The 26-year-old had met the young woman from the neighborhood and made friends with her. There was also sexual contact from time to time, but according to the man, the two were never together. Nevertheless, it apparently annoyed him immensely when the 22-year-old suddenly had a boyfriend. He is said to have called her twice and threatened that he would “slash open” and “stab” her and her partner. On December 26, the woman was walking with her boyfriend in Hart near Graz when the 26-year-old drove by. “He got angry,” said the prosecutor. Then he is said to have turned around and driven straight towards the two. Shortly before, he still dodged, but drove against a boundary post. The two walkers were just able to dodge. Defender: “It was a love-hate relationship” “I didn’t want to hurt anyone, I just wanted to scare them,” the person concerned emphasized several times. His defense attorney spoke of a “love-hate relationship”. The two “can’t get along with each other, but they can’t live without each other either”. The 26-year-old hadn’t been sober that night either. According to the prosecutor, the Styrian turned around after the first attempt and drove towards the frightened couple a second time. There were no traces of this, only the statement of the victim. Judgment expected in the evening The woman had trouble coordinating the memories in court and describing the process in a reasonably understandable way. She insisted on testifying only in the absence of the victim, but even then she couldn’t hold back her tears. She denied that it was an on-off relationship. After he hit her and she reported him, she said she wanted nothing more to do with him. “He drove towards us from behind and wanted to hit us, the tires squeaked,” she recalled. “We jumped into the field,” continued the woman, who has obviously not yet processed what happened. A jury decision was expected in the evening.
source site-12