Online acquaintance

Attempted murder charge: “Victim had to suffer agony”

The 26-year-old defendant took his seat in the regional court in Wels on Wednesday. He placed a large plastic bottle filled with water next to him, from which he repeatedly took a sip.

(Bild: Markus Wenzel, Krone KREATIV)

A 26-year-old man was charged with attempted murder on Wednesday at the regional court in Wels for allegedly forcibly holding an online acquaintance for three hours during their first meeting and seriously injuring her neck with a knife. He denies intent to kill.

"And then I went to prison. That's all." This is how the 26-year-old accused of attempted murder, among other things - slim, in a white shirt - ended his approximately one-hour account in English at the Wels Regional Court on Wednesday of what happened from his point of view on October 17 of the previous year. The short version: many months earlier, the Israeli, who most recently lived in Munich, had met a then 34-year-old woman from the Vöcklabruck district on an online gaming platform.

The two got on well, talked a lot on the phone via video, a kind of relationship developed - until she broke up with him in December 2022 and finally broke off the relationship after renewed online contact in spring 2023.

The defendant's escape ended with this accident.

(Bild: Pressefoto Scharinger © Daniel Scharinger)

Knife, rope and adhesive tape in his luggage
So far, the 26-year-old's story and that of the prosecuting attorney are still the same. Then they diverge: the Israeli claimed to have driven to Upper Austria in a rented car on October 17 and to have visited his internet acquaintance there to talk to her.

The public prosecutor, on the other hand, saw an intent to kill against the victim because the 26-year-old had packed a knife, rope and adhesive tape - and because he had injured the woman several times with the knife, most seriously with a nine-centimetre cut to her neck, before she managed to escape and underwent emergency surgery. Knife against neck - according to the public prosecutor, this was undoubtedly attempted murder. The defendant, on the other hand, only wants to have injured the victim unintentionally during the scuffle.

Prosecutor: Victim suffered agony
Before this knife attack, the 26-year-old is said to have forcibly held his victim in his apartment for around three hours. The prosecutor emphasized several times that it was impossible to imagine the agony the victim had to endure.

The Israeli was sent to the prison mentioned at the beginning of this article when the police caught him on the run the day after the crime. He confessed in court to the charges of aggravated coercion and deprivation of liberty, but denied the attempted murder.

The trial is scheduled to last two days. A verdict is to be reached on Friday at the latest.