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The regional court of Flensburg could not pass its judgment with absolute certainty - the presiding judge Mathias Eggers made this clear.

But after an extensive circumstantial trial, the criminal chamber found it proven that a 47-year-old man from a village near the Danish border murdered 23-year-old Nathalie M. in 2019.

For this, the German was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday.

The young woman from Stadum was initially missing in August 2019.

Two weeks later, her bare and already severely decayed body was found by chance on the edge of a dirt road near the defendant's place of residence.

At this point, he had been in custody for a few days.

At the end of almost a year of taking evidence, the court now assumed that the man and the 23-year-old had met on a dating platform on the Internet, on which Nathalie M. was prostituting herself.

They agreed to meet on August 17, 2019.

Before, during or after sex on a remote forest path in Schafflund, there was a conflict.

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The court is convinced that the man used a stun gun to get his way.

In order to cover up dangerous bodily harm and / or a sexual offense, he then deliberately strangled Nathalie M.

The chamber ruled out that the physically superior man could have used the stun gun to defend himself against the petite young woman - that was more of a theoretical nature.

Other events are theoretically possible, said Eggers.

But there was no evidence of this in the main hearing.

The defendant was silent throughout the trial

The defendant, who was led into the courtroom with a face mask, FFP2 mask and gloves, remained silent during the sentencing on Friday, as in the entire trial.

Eggers meanwhile stated that the chamber was convinced of the man's culprit relatively early on.

Questions about the motive or the exact course of events were more difficult to clarify.

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Overall, the court was convinced that the evidence spoke against the accused.

For example, DNA traces of Nathalie M. were found in the man's car, as well as the stun gun that was found during searches on his property.

The cell phone data showed that Nathalie M. and the man had been in one place on the day of the incident.

Eggers gave further clues that completed the puzzle.

Originally the charge was manslaughter.

However, legal evidence was given relatively early in the proceedings that a murder conviction could also be considered.

In their pleading, the public prosecutor's office had requested a life sentence for murder - while the defense pleaded for acquittal.

After the taking of evidence, she saw no confirmed conclusions for a conviction - and now wants to "let the judgment sink in" and then decide whether she will appeal.