2023-10-30 16:33:55
More than four decades after a brutal murder in Munich, the public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against a now 70-year-old British man. In his youth, around the turn of the year 1978/79, the man is said to have killed a then 69-year-old Munich man in his apartment out of greed with a kilo-heavy mortar pestle. The pensioner was extradited by the British authorities and has been in custody in Germany for six months, as the Munich police headquarters and the public prosecutor’s office reported on Monday.
Murder does not generally have a statute of limitations under German criminal law, but it is extremely rare for an investigation to lead to the arrest and indictment of a suspect after more than four decades. “A large number of witnesses have already died,” said Stephan Beer, the head of the Munich homicide squad, who himself called the case “remarkable.”
Accordingly, the victim was last seen in the company of a young Englishman on December 30, 1978. The dead man was found in his bathtub on January 2nd with his skull shattered, apparently stabbed from behind. The police found three fingerprints in the apartment, as well as a hair and a liquid on the bed sheet. In 2005, thanks to advances in forensic science, DNA traces were extracted from these two pieces of evidence in the laboratory.
“He allowed himself to be arrested without resistance”
When the files were opened again in 2018, the Munich investigators compared the fingerprints across Europe, but it was not until 2021 that there was a hit in Great Britain.
The subsequent investigations finally led to the Brit’s trail. According to Beers, the DNA traces also match. The man was finally caught outside his home in the UK on March 22nd. “He allowed himself to be arrested without resistance,” said Beer. But according to the Munich police chief, the defendant remains silent. “He is not making any statements as a suspect.” According to the police, at least 1,000 marks were stolen from the apartment at the time, as well as a coin ring and the key. Some witnesses are still alive, including police officers who were involved in the case at the time.
Prosecutor Juliane Grotz, deputy spokeswoman for the Munich I public prosecutor’s office, praised the good cooperation with the British judiciary. The authorities there reacted very quickly to the Munich arrest warrant application.
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If the man were convicted in Germany, he would then be transferred back to Great Britain to serve his sentence there. According to a spokesman, the Munich regional court has not yet decided whether to admit the charges.
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