display
Patrick S. showed no remorse, gave no reason to believe that he regretted the murder of 23-year-old Sophie N.
Neither through words nor non-verbally.
This is how the presiding judge Stefan Joseph describes the behavior of the 35-year-old Dessauer in the grounds for the judgment of the 13th major criminal chamber of the Hanover regional court.
“You think you are the victim.
But you committed the murder.
Insidious and for base motives.
And you didn't want to talk.
Not even with us. "
With its judgment, the court found it proven that the 35-year-old Patrick S. had stabbed the 22-year-old Sophie N. on January 11, 2020 in the bathroom.
Patrick S. has to be imprisoned for life, and because of the particular gravity of the crime, the sentence cannot be commuted to probation after 15 years.
Again and again the judge uses the attribute “disturbing” with regard to the crime, but also to the entire personality of the accused: “Your life is quite disturbing, but your behavior towards women in general and against Sophie N. in particular leaves one stunned back."
Patrick S. had followed his ex-work colleague Sophie N. for a year and a half, observed, attacked and finally meticulously planned her death.
He was very thoughtful and intelligent and made the conscious decision to kill the young woman after she made it clear that she did not want any contact with him, said Joseph in his almost 80-minute reasoning for the verdict.
display
“It all came from you.
She didn't stand a chance, ”the judge clarified.
He was referring to the statement of the defense that Patrick S. followed Sophie N. "like the moth to the light".
He just wanted to talk to her.
The action in the bathroom came from Sophie N., who threw herself at him.
Joseph said that this was not even remotely true.
You wanted to punish her.
You should suffer what you allegedly have suffered yourself since September 2018.
You should see how bad that is. "
"They wanted to disappear like a ghost"
On the evening of January 10, 2020, Patrick S. entered the young woman's apartment in Hanover through the balcony, masked, dressed in black and armed.
She was not at home celebrating her farewell with friends - she wanted to move to Austria in a month to start a new job as a flight attendant.
For almost 24 hours he hid under the roommate's bed.
When Sophie N. came home, he waited until she went to the toilet and followed her into the narrow bathroom.
He overwhelmed her, Sophie N. tried to fight back, but she had no chance.
He pierced the carotid artery with his knife.
Then he got his things and left the apartment.
"They wanted to disappear like a ghost, that was the plan," said the judge.
But Patrick S. was seen driving away, his clothes were stained with blood, he did not expect the resistance from Sophie N.
The judge said the fear of being exposed was the reason why he turned himself in to the police the next day, it was not remorse, but tactical considerations.
display
The murder of the 23-year-old was preceded by a long persecution.
Patrick S. and Sophie N. met in July 2017 as colleagues in the team at an H&M branch in Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt, their hometown.
Patrick S. fell in love with the twelve years younger woman, but she wanted nothing more than a friendly relationship with him.
Little did she know that Patrick S. was spying on her.
He found out the pin number of her cell phone, watched everything Sophie did on social networks.
He took thousands of screenshots of their activities.
When Patrick S. began to pursue her openly and followed her twice to her vacation spot in Barcelona, Sophie N. was annoyed by his intrusive behavior and broke off contact, calling him "touchy".
The last time they saw each other before their death was in the fall of 2018 - over a year before the final act.
From then on he proceeded more and more aggressively.
He created profiles on Snapchat and Instagram with revealing pictures of her.
His attacks did not stay in virtual space.
When Sophie N. moved to Hanover, he spied on her.
He attached a tracking device to her mother's car and used the GPS data to create a motion picture.
He rang the doorbell of Sophie N. and called her constantly, up to 164 times a day.
He sent her cell phone photos in real time when she was traveling, of the hotel room, of the train she got off.
display
With this, Patrick S. had “permanently impaired” the life of N., said the judge: “The signal was clear.
'I know where you are, I know what you're doing, I can access you at any time.' ”And that's exactly how he acted.
Patrick S. had planned to murder his victim since the rejection, Joseph explained.
When he found out that Sophie N. was moving to Austria in February and wanted to take up a new position there, the chances of “getting her” had decreased: “There was a plan.
And in the end there was the death of Sophie N. "
The verdict corresponded to the demands of the public prosecutor and the joint plaintiff, the defense had demanded nine years in prison for manslaughter.
The defendant watched the trial with his head bowed.
During the judge's lectures, his whole body trembled and shook.
He slid deep into his chair, his head with the hair shaved off at the sides bowed.
But when he got up and was led away, the tremors were gone.
For Marco Bennewitz, co-plaintiff's representative for the mother of the murdered, this is the evidence of the defendant's manipulative behavior: “As soon as he gets up, every emotion is blown away,” he said after the reasons for the verdict.
The verdict and the appreciation of the two features of murder - insidiousness and intent - "obvious".
Still, the verdict could not make up for the loss the mother suffered, he said.
Patrick S. may have to stand trial again for stalking.
A preliminary investigation is pending against him - one of very many in Germany.
Around 19,000 stalking offenses are registered in the police statistics, but only one percent of them result in convictions.
The number of unreported cases is even up to 300,000.
There is currently another tightening of the stalking paragraph in the room.
The Ministry of Justice considers the hurdles to be too high for cyberstalking as a criminal offense.
At present it has to be proven that the stalker “persistently” chases after the victim and “seriously” affects life.
In order to lower the hurdles, the word "persistent" should be replaced by "repeated" and the term "serious" by "not insignificant".
Patrick S. affected Sophie N.'s life in this way, as Judge Joseph stated in his statement, and seriously.
His aversion turned into hatred until the murder occurred.
As if for consolation, Joseph addressed his parents with his closing words: "We are convinced that the fact that she struggled helped prevent him from disappearing like a ghost."