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Meth man on trial for stepfather murder

Staff reporter
Staff reporter - [email protected]
Meth man on trial for stepfather murder
Photo: APA/RUBRA

The trial began in Linz on Monday of a 37-year-old man who is accused of the murder of his stepfather while high on crystal meth.

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The alleged murder occurred in St. Thomas am Blasenstein, a municipality of the region of Perg in Upper Austria.

The 37-year-old man is accused of killing his 63-year-old stepfather in August last year, by beating him with various objects, and then finally crushing him with a wooden bench after a series of heated arguments.

The facts of the killing are not in dispute. In defence, the accused has claimed that he was insane at the time of the murder, as he was under the influence of crystal meth.

A prosecution witness claims that the defendant had in fact consumed fewer drugs than usual, and that the killing occurred as the result of a personality disorder.  A court-appointed psychiatrist has confirmed that the man needs treatment.

Based on an expert report, the defendant is considered to be a risk to others, and therefore the court has been asked by the prosecution to remand him to a specialist psychiatric unit for mentally abnormal offenders.

A verdict is expected on Friday.

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