15 years in prison

Slashed girlfriend’s throat with baby in his arms

The Austrian says in the Vienna Landl: "I never wanted to kill her. I love this woman."(Bild: Zwefo)

It is an unbelievable act: with a knife in one hand and his nine-month-old daughter in the other, a 28-year-old man in Vienna slit his girlfriend's throat. She survived thanks to emergency surgery. On the witness stand, the Carinthia native cries: "I see the scar every day." For the jury, there is no doubt that this was attempted murder.

"Did you cut your partner's throat?" was Judge Stefan Apostol's first question. "Yes," said the 28-year-old. Only to then attempt to explain – or justify – his incomprehensible act in the same sentence. "It all happened so fast. In that moment, I just lost it. I just wanted to hurt her. I was so angry," the Austrian almost whines.

Preferred gambling to assembling furniture
But what could have made the unemployed man so angry that he would hold a knife to the throat of the mother of his then nine-month-old child? A trifle. The couple moved from Klagenfurt to Vienna in mid-September. The 28-year-old hoped for better job opportunities. Then, on September 25: "I should have assembled a wardrobe. But I was lazy and preferred to play video games."

First a slap, then blows
It's understandable that the 25-year-old got upset: "I asked him several times," she recalls in the witness box. At some point, the Carinthian woman started ranting – "I was so frustrated." That's when the situation escalated completely. What started with a slap continued with punches and kicks. 

He had the knife in one hand and was holding the little girl in the other.

25-jährige Kärntnerin im Zeugenstand

Then the Austrian-born man went into the kitchen. "I just heard the drawer," the woman recalls. "He had the knife in one hand and was holding the little girl in the other." When he grabbed the 25-year-old from behind and threatened, "Now you'll see. You bitch, I'm going to kill you." He cut her across the throat with the vegetable knife. The wound was ten centimeters long and one and a half centimeters deep ...

Attorney Christian Werner took on the mandatory defense in the attempted murder trial.(Bild: „Krone“, Krone KREATIV)

The young mother was in a coma for eight days. It was only when she was able to make a statement to the police in October that the 28-year-old was arrested. When the emergency services provided first aid, he spoke of self-harm – the Carinthian woman had agreed to this at the time. Why, she now no longer knows exactly when testifying in court. 

Scar as a constant reminder
And then the 25-year-old bursts into tears: "I see the scar every day when I look in the mirror." After being placed in an induced coma, she had to learn to walk again with a walker. She was unable to hold her young daughter in her arms for months. Sleep was unthinkable without medication. A minor problem, perhaps, but a constant reminder: "I had such beautiful long hair that reached my hips. That's gone too."

The defendant, defended by attorney Christian Werner, maintains: "I never wanted to kill her. I love this woman. We have a child together." The jury is not convinced: they unanimously find him guilty of attempted murder and sentence the 28-year-old to 15 years in prison.