Woman (51) committed

Family persecuted for nine years: “It was a nightmare”

Stalking hell: The Viennese woman held notes in the surveillance camera and waited for hours in the car in front of Thomas A.'s house.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/privat)

A Lower Austrian family went through hell for almost a decade, even fleeing abroad. From a 51-year-old Viennese woman - the police's hands were tied until the summer. In Krems Regional Court, it is now clear that she cannot distinguish between reality and the result of her severe schizophrenia.

Everything about the 51-year-old, who is sitting in Krems Regional Court (Lower Austria), seems normal - until she gives an insight into her world. A world in which telepathy is possible, in which there is a "silent language". The Viennese woman cannot distinguish between what is real and what is due to her severe schizophrenia.

Relationship conducted in "silent language"
Just like her relationship with Thomas A.(name changed), which she conducted with him using "silent language". The victim recounts how she imagined a future with the entrepreneur and believed that she could communicate with him - the 47-year-old also told her about his divorce in this way. He had repeatedly given her telepathic instructions and asked her to meet him - but he never showed up. Once she had even packed for a vacation together.

This ordeal lasted nine years.

Opfervertreter Werner Tomanek

Bild: Zwefo

The judge is slowly getting to grips with the reality of the accused, who has actually been on medication since July. "What do you say when I tell you that Mr. A. is still married?" asks Ms. Rat cautiously - "Are you sure? Did you ask at the registry office?" the 51-year-old is still doubtful. The public prosecutor also tries: "Can you imagine that this is all fantasy in her head?" The woman: "I can't imagine that there's no truth to it."

Stalking nightmare for the family
For the Lower Austrian and his family, this turned into a stalking nightmare. "This ordeal lasted nine years," says victim representative Werner Tomanek. She met A. briefly in 2016 and became completely fixated on the 47-year-old: "When we were in a pub, she would suddenly sit at the next table and stare at us. She sat in the car outside our house all night and watched us. We even had a security guard who accompanied the children everywhere."

In 2021, the first restraining order was issued, criminal proceedings were not possible - persistent stalking with a penalty of up to one year in prison is not a criminal offense for a criminal placement ...

Four years of peace, then "a hundred times worse"
"Then it was quiet until it got a hundred times worse this spring. It turned into a nightmare," the father of the family recalled in court. The victim held up notes to the camera in front of the house, showed a cutthroat gesture and also lay in wait for the children. The family even fled abroad. Of course, this was not a permanent solution ...

Sad: psychological consequences necessary for accommodation
Who suffered the most: Thomas A's wife "She was already in a very bad state." The Lower Austrian woman has been in therapy ever since and has an adjustment disorder - equivalent to a serious assault. That's why the stalker was finally arrested: "We then received the news that the woman was in custody. That was an exhalation," says A.

Even if, sadly, the wife's psychological consequences had to come about first, after nine long years this has now fulfilled the criteria for criminal placement in a forensic therapy center. The decision by the panel of lay judges at the regional court in Krems (Lower Austria) is not legally binding.