At first glance, it is a mild punishment for a disturbing act: because she killed her 70-year-old partner with 26 stab wounds in early May, a 71-year-old pensioner from Mönchengladbach has to go to prison for six years and ten months.

The district court in Mönchengladbach concluded on Monday that Walburga S. killed her partner Franziska H., with whom she had lived for 25 years, on May 7 in affect.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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In the main hearing, the testimony of numerous witnesses from the couple's large circle of friends made it clear that Walburga S. increased the - made out of thin air - assumption that her partner was in a relationship with a woman 20 years her junior.

On the day of the crime, Franziska H. is said to have made fun of Walburga S. because of these repeated accusations in the shared kitchen and advised her to go to a therapist.

S. then grabbed a filleting knife and stabbed her in a fury of destruction untypical for female perpetrators when her partner tried to flee into the hallway.

Walburga S. was less responsible

The public prosecutor's office - who had dropped the charge of murder in their plea in early November - had asked for eight years for manslaughter, the defense a maximum of five years.

In its verdict, the court followed the psychiatric expert on Monday, who came to the conclusion that Walburga S. was mentally tense at the time of the crime, plagued by fear of loss and depression and is therefore less responsible.

Even for him after four decades of professional experience, it is a rare case, the specialist in neurology and psychiatry said, not only with regard to the fact that only twelve percent of all homicides are committed by women.

Walburga S. is also a rarity as a "retirement delinquent";

such perpetrators are often "neurologically and psychiatrically abnormal".

Not only the jealousy impulse itself is surprising at this age, but that the impulse led to a homicide.

The brutal nature of the killing, with at least two dozen stab wounds, is also striking in this case.

The expert rated this as "overkill" - based on the term "overkill", which criminologists use when the victim is subjected to significantly more violence than is actually necessary.

Walburga S. only became a perpetrator on May 7th.

Nevertheless, like every affective act, the act has a history.

S. felt betrayed by her partner and didn't believe she wasn't having an affair.

According to the expert, S. also experienced three psycho-traumatic events in her life: the unprocessed accidental death of her then 18-year-old daughter, ten years later the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and the confrontation with her sexual orientation.

Walburga S. confessed to her best friend's crime on May 7th in a Whatsapp chat that had been non-binding and cheerful to this day.