Punishment for the death and burning of a woman in Rajhrad: Seventeen years in prison, the court decided

The victim died directly from the effects of the fire. She was still alive when the convict set her on fire. Judge Dagmar Bordovská described burns as one of the worst possible pains a person can experience. Due to the particularly harrowing manner of the murder, the trial panel therefore sent the defendant behind bars for seventeen years.

Four-car accident in Pisarecká street in Brno. The two injured were treated by paramedics

There was even a life sentence for Josef N. at stake. “Nothing but the victim’s body was set on fire, in this situation it must have been obvious to the defendant that the use of a fire accelerant would cause a rapid flame, the action of which would lead to death,” said judge Dagmar Bordovská on Thursday morning.

The tragedy occurred last year at the end of November in the evening. What specifically preceded it, the court could not find out. The convict claimed the entire time that he did not remember anything from the time he arrived at the house to the subsequent awakening in the hospital. The immediate cause of the victim’s death was burns. “It has been proven that at the time of the fire and the death of the victim, only the defendant and the victim were in the house, there was no one else in it,” Judge Bordovská ruled out the presence of anyone else at the scene of the accident.

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Due to the alleged amnesia of the convict, the court also did not find out how exactly the event took place. He ruled out, however, that the victim would have doused herself with flammable liquid and subsequently tried to commit suicide by setting herself on fire. This was evidenced, among other things, by the amount of antidepressants and alcohol she consumed before her death. “Taking into account the state of the victim and her previous way of life, where the solution to stressful situations consisted in taking pills, drinking alcohol and then being apathetic, the court ruled out the possibility that in this state she would have been able to douse herself with flammable liquids and cause her death by burning herself “, the judge reasoned.

However, the members of the court panel recognized that Josef N. could have tried to save the victim after the fire. The extent of his burns would match that. They did not rule out the possibility of a widespread suicide attempt. “The defendant could have extinguished the victim. It was not proven that he had previously thrown blankets and blankets over the victim to make the flame bigger. It cannot be ruled out that after setting the fire, the defendant evaluated the situation differently and tried to prevent an irreversible consequence,” said Bordovská, adding that Josef N. should have realized the consequences before he murdered his girlfriend.

The man denied guilt throughout the trial.

The harrowing murder was preceded by years of cohabitation between the couple, in which alcohol, psychological problems and domestic violence played a role. It was in the moments before the tragedy that another of a series of disagreements apparently occurred in the house. “We know how the victim solved these problems, with alcohol in combination with tranquilizers. After eating, she went to lie down, she was slightly dizzy from them. This was the victim’s way of escaping from conflicts with the defendant. It can be assumed that the victim also reached for this solution that fateful evening,” said prosecutor Marek Vagai at the earlier main trial.

However, the convict objected that he had no reason to set his partner on fire and thus destroy his place to live. “If the court finds that I did it, it will be a life sentence for me and it will be final. I’m sorry for what happened, but I don’t think it’s my fault. I rather think that I am the one who tried to extinguish the fire,” defended Josef N.

Shooting at a car on a housing estate in Komín. The bullet remained in the glass, the police are handling the case

The judgment is not final yet. The public prosecutor waived the right to appeal, the convict kept the appeal period. Josef N. has to pay almost a million crowns in compensation to the remaining two daughters.