By Anne Losensky
He killed the woman he loved the most. But the manslayer does not have to go to prison for his crime: the sentence is two years imprisonment on probation!
It is probably the most tragic love story in the city: pensioner Karl-Heinz N. (78) from Hakenfelde suffocated his wife Oddrun (79) with a pillow on May 31, 2022. Jump from the third floor balcony but survive.
In the past, the prison sergeant guarded criminals. In his old age he is one himself. They were a couple for 40 years. “Enough of yourself,” says the judge. With age came physical and mental decline.
At the end of 2021, the housewife no longer left the house (dementia, shortness of breath, incontinence). He cleaned, cooked, washed and changed diapers. His strength also dwindled. But giving up was never an option, he says: “As promised, I was there for you, in good times and in bad.”
It is said that persistently asking for help was not his thing. “Objectively there was a claim to care services, since this would not have happened,” says the judge. But because of Corona there were no home visits at the time, only telephone contacts: the woman said she was fine – and he did not contradict.
In early 2022, she discharged herself from the hospital. “She gasped and whimpered, I was desperate,” he says. He asked himself: “Should it go on like this every day?” He was with a undertaker. He then smothered her and jumped out the window. “It was the greatest act of love to put her out of the suffering and misery,” says a neighbor.
The widower still wears his wedding ring. The judge sends him home. “Hopefully, the probation sentence will not lead to a large number of older people committing such crimes.”
The prosecutor had requested two and a half years in prison.