SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Husband found guilty of murdering Down’s wife

A 55-year-old Austrian man and his girlfriend have been found guilty of murdering the man’s wife, who had Down’s syndrome, during a holiday to Paraguay in 2011.

Husband found guilty of murdering Down's wife
Gerhard Freiherr Hansalik and Michaela Säulenfels. Photo: APA/ROBERT JAEGER

"The two defendants deliberately administered an overdose of painkillers to the 46-year-old woman in the autumn of 2011 in Paraguay," the judge said.

Gerhard Freiherr Hansalik was sentenced to life imprisonment, and Michaela Säulenfels (47) to 17 years.

The jury reached a unanimous guilty verdict, which the defence has said it will appeal against.

The couple plead not guilty. "There is no crime. The only crime is that we as a couple are sitting here in the dock," Hansalik said on Tuesday evening, before the verdict was given.

The pair were accused of killing Wendy Freiherr, from Lower Austria, in order to gain access to her savings which amounted to €80,000.

The prosecution said that for Hansalik it was purely “a sham marriage”.

The landlady of the house in Paraguay where the three had stayed told the court that she had assumed Hansalik and Säulenfels were married, and that Wendy Freiherr had been introduced as a “distant relative”.

Freiherr was buried in Paraguay on the day she died, her husband did not tell the South American authorities that he was her spouse, and he didn’t inform her relatives of her death.

However the defence said the case against the pair was based only on assumptions and that there was no evidence that the deceased was poisoned with painkillers.

The exact cause of her death could not be established, even after a four day trial and toxicology reports.

As it was not possible to exhume her body, a tissue sample was sent to Austria for analysis.

The coroner said that he believed an overdose of hydromorphone was the likely cause of death.

He said the active compound could be detected in the muscle tissue of the deceased, and that a dose of four tablets would  be fatal.

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Austria investigates 17 teens for alleged sexual abuse of girl

Austrian authorities on Friday said they were investigating 17 teenagers - including 12 minors - over the alleged months-long sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in Vienna last year.

Austria investigates 17 teens for alleged sexual abuse of girl

The alleged offences took place in a disadvantaged area of the capital’s south “between February and June 2023, in toilets, garages, a hotel and in the perpetrators’ homes”, Florian Finda, deputy director of the Vienna police, told a news conference.

The suspects in the rare case – most of whom are aged between 14 and 18 – are of Bulgarian, Italian, Serbian, Syrian and Turkish origin.

Two of them are under 14 and therefore below Austria’s age of criminal responsibility.

The suspects – almost all of whom were known to police for other offences – are accused of serious sexual abuse of a minor, including the pornographic depiction of the abuse of a minor.

Thirteen suspects were questioned on Thursday, with some of them partially denying the allegations.

The suspects and the Austrian victim met through one of the accused, with whom the then 12-year-old is said to have made out with.

She was then introduced to the rest of the group.

The boys allegedly exchanged videos and photos of the abuse via social networks including WhatsApp chats, with one of them allegedly threatening to share the pornographic material.

According to the police, none of the material was made available to the wider public.

In October, the young girl, now 13, informed her mother, who subsequently filed a complaint.

The ongoing investigation is due to be transferred to the public prosecutor’s office.

SHOW COMMENTS