Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Ex-banker jailed for ‘revenge killing’ of child

A 48-year-old former Geneva bank executive who strangled and suffocated his seven-year-old daughter and later pretended it happened while the pair was playing a game of “who is the boss” was jailed on Tuesday for 16 years.

Published: 19 January 2016 19:59 CET

Ex-banker jailed for 'revenge killing' of child

Photo: Canton of Valais/Wallis

The incident occurred in June 2012 in the resort town of Loèche-les-Bains in the canton of Valais, where the ex-banker had a holiday apartment, according to the Haut-Valais district court.

His lawyer argued that he killed the girl in an act of negligence while the two were playing alone during a weekend together in the apartment.

But the court rejected the argument, finding the resident of Founex in the canton of Vaud guilty of murder.

Court evidence found that the man, who had lost his job twice over a period of years and suffered from depression, acted out of vengeance after his wife decided to leave him.

The man’s lawyer said his client maintained that they were playing “who is the boss”, a game that consisted of strangling each other until one of them said “stop”, Le Temps newspaper said.

In addition to the jail sentence, the former exec was ordered to pay the victim’s mother 35,000 francs in damages and to cough up more than 41,000 francs in legal costs.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

How to avoid the 'police' phone scam in Switzerland

Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been monitoring the phenomenon of fake calls from alleged police authorities for nine months now.

But in the last three weeks, reports of this scam have almost tripled, the NCSC said, indicating just how widespread it is.

What is this about?

The scam begins with a call coming, allegedly, from police or another Swiss authority.

A voice, which the NCSC describes as ‘robotic’, informs the person who answers the call that their personal banking data is involved in criminal activities, or makes a similar alarming (but false) claim.

According to the NCSC, “it is not a person who calls, but a software The machine randomly tries Swiss phone numbers throughout the day. If the number is invalid, it simply moves on to the next one.”

“By using this software, the number of calls that can be made is virtually unlimited. It could go through practically all the phone numbers in Switzerland in a day,” the Centre adds.

After raising alarm about your bank account, the fake ‘policeman’ will urge you to “press 1” to be put in touch with a human being and obtain more information.

If you do this and, worse yet, divulge your personal data to the caller, you risk having your computer and credit card hacked.

What should you do (and not do) if you get this call?

The most obvious answer is to immediately hang up because, as the NCSC explains, “real police never play recorded phone messages. They also never ask for money or sensitive personal data over the phone.”

To that end, the Centre recommends that anyone receiving this call:

Should hang up as soon as you hear the recorded message
Not press 1, or any other numbers, during the telephone conversation
Not get drawn into a conversation.
Never grant access to your computer, not even via remote maintenance software.
Never reveal prepaid card activation codes.

A fake tax refund

While the ‘police scam’ is the latest attempt at extortion reported to the NCSC, it is far from a unique case.

Scores of them are reported to the authorities each year, including the one reported earlier in 2024.

It involved phishing emails about alleged tax refund entitlements.

However, the link in the email leads to a phishing page.

Here too, authorities advise to ignore these emails, not click on the link, and not enter any personal data on the phishing page.

READ ALSO : The common scams foreigners in Switzerland need to be aware of

Url copied to clipboard!