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CRIME

Teen horror mask killer to serve ten years

A teenager who stabbed an elderly woman to death while wearing a "Justin the Serial Killer" latex horror mask started a ten-year prison term in Germany on Wednesday.

Teen horror mask killer to serve ten years
Photo: DPA

“It is a totally horrific, disgusting event,” the judge said when jailing him.

“It is horrendous to consider how terrified the woman must have been,” he added.

The 19-year-old man stabbed the 82-year-old woman 40 times with a knife after being left alone for several days in the family’s Bielefeld home for the first time by his mother and sister.

He was seemingly frustrated at having been rejected as a trainee paramedic and had stayed in and watched the violent horror film Saw, the court heard.

He then donned the mask, grabbed a knife and attacked the woman, who lived in the same building.

The judge said that although the man was demonstrably immature, and would thus be tried as a juvenile, he had committed murder and would have to serve a long prison sentence.

The man denied the attack, despite the physical evidence – his clothes were splattered with the woman’s blood and tissue, which could only have come from pulling the knife out, the court heard. There was also blood on the mask which was found in his flat.

The man’s defence team said there was no reason for him to do such a thing. He still has the right to appeal the sentence.

The Local/DPA/hc

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CRIME

Aide to German far-right MEP arrested on suspicion of spying for China

An aide to a German far-right politician standing in June's European Union elections has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Aide to German far-right MEP arrested on suspicion of spying for China

The man, named only as Jian G., stands accused of sharing information about negotiations at European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

On the website of the European Parliament, Jian Guo is listed as an accredited assistant to MEP Maximilian Krah, the far-right AfD party’s lead candidate in the forthcoming EU-wide elections.

He is a German national who has reportedly worked as an aide to Krah in Brussels since 2019.

The suspect “is an employee of a Chinese secret service”, prosecutors said.

“In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client.

“He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.”

The suspect was arrested in the eastern German city of Dresden on Monday and his homes were searched, they added.

The accused lives in both Dresden and Brussels, according to broadcasters ARD, RBB and SWR, who broke the news about the arrest.

The AfD said the allegations were “very disturbing”.

“As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors,” party spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf said in a statement.

The case is likely to fuel concern in the West about aggressive Chinese espionage.

It comes after Germany on Monday arrested three German nationals suspected of spying for China by providing access to secret maritime technology.

READ ALSO: Germany arrests three suspected of spying for China

China’s embassy in Berlin “firmly” rejected the allegations, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

According to German media, the two cases are not connected.

In Britain on Monday, two men were charged with handing over “articles, notes, documents or information” to China between 2021 and last year.

Police named the men as Christopher Berry, 32, and Christoper Cash, 29, who previously worked at the UK parliament as a researcher.

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