He beat his girlfriend, cut her tendons. The court sentenced the man to nine years for long-term abuse

The man denied his guilt, appealed both the guilt and the sentence. The High Court, however, upheld his nine-year prison sentence for long-term abuse of a person living in a common home and for attempted grievous bodily harm. Originally, Herák faced a sentence of five to twelve years.

The actor denied in court from the beginning that he had committed any abuse. However, the regional court already took into account a number of aggravating circumstances, including ten entries in the criminal record, the commission of multiple crimes and Herák’s attitude towards the indictment. That’s why he sentenced him to nine years in prison last December.

Before the court, Herák defended himself by saying that he took care of his girlfriend the whole time. He admitted swearing, and according to him, alcohol was mostly to blame.

According to the indictment, however, the man beat his girlfriend, pulled her hair and forbade her, for example, to go to the toilet.

“In one case, he cut the tendons on her instep, during other attacks the woman suffered a contusion of the skull and deformation of the earlobes,” described Stanislav Cik, the spokesperson of the High Court in Olomouc.

According to the chairman of the senate, Aleš Vašk, the regional court carefully and logically compared the evidence and put it in context, according to which there is no doubt that the defendant committed the crime.

“The victim’s statement is crucial in terms of describing the acts that usually took place between the defendant and the victim, but there is also a lot of evidence, including evidence of an objective nature,” said the judge.

It concerns a psychological assessment, an expert’s assessment regarding the injured party’s injuries and witness statements. According to the court, the punishment is appropriate.

However, the 44-year-old Herák claimed that the regional court acted biasedly and unilaterally in favor of the victim. “I regret the way I lived with the victim, we drank alcohol, it was an unhealthy relationship. However, what the victim claims is not true,” he said.

However, according to prosecutor Jaroslav Kandrač, the appeal is a repetition of the defense.

Behind closed doors

“According to the expert opinion, the victim suffered from a syndrome of abuse of a person, to such an extent that she blamed herself for things she did not cause,” said judge Vladimír Najdekr last year.

He admitted that the situation was complicated by the fact that all the violence took place behind closed doors and that she was damaged by an alcoholic woman whose three children had been taken away.

“But the fact that she is a problematic person does not make her an inferior victim of a crime,” added the judge, adding that even according to experts, her statement is credible.

He also imposed damages in the form of pain and non-pecuniary damage in the amount of over a quarter of a million crowns.