A blow with the coal shovel
It is impossible to overlook the fact that this is a family dispute – the rift runs right through the courtroom, so to speak. Both parties sit neatly separated from each other, direct eye contact is avoided as much as possible.
They have not talked to each other for a long time. To be precise: since 9. March 2012. At that time, a permanent dispute reached its climax. Place of the event: a house where the grandparents lived on the second floor and the granddaughter and her family on the first floor. Stress there was apparently already for a long time, mostly it was about money.
Whereby opinions differ widely as to who has created whom here. The grandparents feel betrayed and sold by the granddaughter – even the death benefit of a good 640 euros is said to have been collected by her.
The granddaughter’s statements were quite different: she had been repeatedly approached by her grandmother to cough up a hundred here and a fifty there.
"A gleam in the eye." The victim about the perpetrator just before he struck
When it came to another dispute at the beginning of march last year, the man of the granddaughter took up the matter. He wanted to confront the old men and threaten them with a lawyer. So the 47-year-old hurried upstairs. First there was shouting, then shoving. Finally, the 76-year-old landlord grabbed the charcoal shovel, which was standing by the stove, and gave it a powerful blow.
The consequences: the brother-in-law second degree fell over and was briefly unconscious. Later in the hospital, the laceration on the ear had to be stitched with two stitches – fortunately, there was no further damage for all involved.
A few days later, the granddaughter and her family moved out, and the famous tablecloth was finally cut.
Now in court, different views collide. The accused is sure to have acted in a kind of self-defense, because the 30 years younger man had acted so brutally. He, on the other hand, does not take this lying down and insists that he has been prudent for a few moments. The old man had been eager to hit him at all costs. He had seen that, shortly before everything around him went black, by the "glow in the eyes".
It can’t be said that the criminal judge in kitzingen doesn’t get the chance to get a good picture of the broken family circumstances. The granddaughter says about her grandfather that "anything is possible for him". The 76-year-old, in turn, retaliates by saying that his granddaughter "got the wrong man". And what he means by wrong, he explains right away: "jahzornig, hinterhaltig, falsch" (angry, deceitful, wrong).
Criminal court judge marc betz is not satisfied with the self-defense that was brought into play, but he goes to the lower limit of the penalty: the grandfather, who has no previous convictions, is sentenced to five months’ imprisonment, suspended for three years. In addition, he must pay 750 euros to the weiben ring, which cares for victims of violence.